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Zbc  TUnivcvsit^  of  CblcaQO 

FOUNDED   BY  JOHN    D.    ROCKEFELLER 


A  PRELIMINARY  STUDY 


OF 


THE  PUEBLO  OF  TAOS 

NEW  MEXICO 


A    DISSERTATION     SUBMITTED    TO    THE     FACULTIES    OF    THE     GRADUATE 

SCHOOLS  OF  ARTS,   LITERATURE,  AND  SCIENCE,  IN  CANDIDACY 

FOR    THE    DEGREE    OF    DOCTOR    OF    PHILOSOPHY 

DEPARTMENT    OF    ANTHROPOLOGY 


BY 

MERTON    LELAND    MILLER 


Of  T  H  i: 

UNIVERL.  .  .     ; 


s. 


CHICAGO 

Zbe  Xllnipcrsits  of  Cbicago  Iprcss 

1898 


ANALYSIS  OF  CONTENTS. 

Taos  Valley,  5  ;  discovery  of  Taos  by  the  Spaniards,  6  ;  houses 
now  occupied  at  Taos  not  those  in  use  when  discovered,  9  ;  resistance 
offered  to  the  Spaniards,  10;  linguistic  relations  of  the  Pueblos  of 
New  Mexico,  11  ;  origin  of  Taos  people,  13;  numbers  of  the  Pueblo 
Indians,  13;  land  tenure,  15;  location  of  Taos,  16;  irrigation,  17; 
houses,  18;  ovens,  20  ;  produce  and  mode  of  agriculture,  21 ;  plows,  22  ; 
harvesting,  22  ;  hunting,  23  :  work  of  the  women,  23 ;  kivas,  form,  use, 
location,  and  number,  24;  dress,  27;  hair  dressing,  30  ;  civil  organiza- 
tion, 31  ;  clans,  34;  marriage,  35  ;  mode  of  reckoning  time,  35  ;  seasons, 
36;  communal  work,  36;  communal  hunts,  36;  language,  37;  personal 
names,  38  ;  people  at  Taos  from  other  Pueblos,  38  ;  religion,  39 ; 
force  of  custom  among  Indians,  41  ;  difficulties  in  learning  Indian 
traditions,  42  ;  myths  and  traditions,  42. 


-J 


PREFATORY  NOTE. 

This  brief  account  of  the  Pueblo  of  Taos  is  the  result  mainly  of  a 
three-months'  visit  at  the  Pueblo  in  the  summer  of  1896.  Now  that  a 
few  friends  have  been  made  there,  it  is  hoped  that  at  a  later  time  a  more 
complete  and  thorough  study  may  be  made. 

The  repeated  references  to  the  Papers  of  the  Arch(zological  Institute 
of  America  show  how  much  I  am  indebted  to  the  writings  of  Mr.  A.  F. 
Bandelier. 

In  spelling  the  few  native  names  which  occur  in  this  study  and 
which  I  have  not  seen  mentioned  before,  I  have  followed  the  alphabet 
given  in  Powell's  Introduction  to  the  Study  of  Indian  Languages. 

M.  L.   M. 


A  PRELIMINARY  STUDY  OF  THE    PUEBLO  OP' 

TAOS,  NEW  MEXICO. 


One  of  the  most  attractive  valleys  in  New  Mexico  is  that  of  Taos. 
It  is  situated  in  the  center  of  the  northern  part  of  the  territory,  not 
many  miles  from  the  Colorado  line.  Shut  in  by  the  Taos  range  of  the 
Rocky  mountains  on  the  east  and  by  the  mesas  which  border  the  Rio 
Grande  on  the  west,  it  is  today,  as  it  has  been  in  the  past,  one  of  the 
best  watered,  greenest,  and  most  fertile  valleys  in  the  Southwest.  The 
one  thing  above  all  others  needed  in  New  Mexico  is  water.  Taos 
valley,  while  it  has  not  an  over-abundant  supply,  has  enough  to  enable 
the  people  to  irrigate  as  much  as  they  wish,  except  in  unusually  dry 
seasons.  The  several  streams  which  water  the  valley,  the  principal  of 
which  are  Lucerro,  Pueblo,  Taos,  and  Fernandez  creeks,  are  rarely 
entirely  dry,  unless  the  water  is  turned  aside  into  the  acequias,  the 
large  irrigating  ditches  which  run  from  every  stream.  Perhaps  no 
crops,  excepting  maize,  the  staple  Indian  product,  could  be  raised 
without  irrigation.  "  Corn  may  grow  on  elevated  table  mountains  or 
plateaus  that  are  hundreds,  nay  thousands,  of  feet  above  a  spring  or 
brook."  '  Under  such  circumstances  the  water  must  be  economically 
used,  and  often  in  midsummer,  when  the  snow  on  the  mountains  has 
melted,  must  be  used  continuously  day  and  night,  as  the  supply  is  not 
large  enough  to  permit  many  to  irrigate  at  the  same  time. 

The  valley  owes  its  fertility  and  attractiveness  in  large  part  to  its 
altitude  and  its  location  in  the  mountains,  whose  melting  snows  supply 
the  streams.  Its  elevation  is  over  7,000  feet.  In  the  summer  days, 
when  the  sun  shines,  as  it  does  during  the  greater  part  of  the  warmer 
season,  it  is  very  hot,  but  the  air  is  so  dry  that  one  does  not  seriously 
feel  the  heat  ;  and  as  soon  as  the  sun  sets  the  air  is  very  cool  and 
refreshing,  often,  after  a  very  hot  day,  even  chilly. 

The  report  of  the  first  geological  survey  of  this  region  contains  a 
notice  which  is  interesting  because  it  helps  to  show  how  attractive 
Taos  valley  has  appeared  to  everyone  who  has  seen  it,  not  merely  as 
compared  with  other  less  favored  parts  of  New  Mexico,  but  when  com- 

'  Papers  of  the  Archaological  Institute  of  America,  American  Series,  III,  p.  156. 

5 


6  STUDY  OF  THE  PUEBLO  OF  TAOS 

pared  with  other  regions  better  supplied  with  water.  "  The  Taos  Basin 
has,  perhaps,  a  larger  amount  of  tillable  land  in  one  compact  body 
than  is  to  be  found  similarly  situated  in  any  other  part  of  the  area. 
The  soil  is  admirable,  being  derived  from  the  Archaean  and  Carbonif- 
erous with  no  small  admixture  of  volcanic  material ;  while  at  but  a 
few  inches  below  the  surface  is  a  tufaceous  limestone,  which  cannot 
fail  to  be  a  constant  amendment  to  the  soil.  Water  is  supplied  by 
large  streams  —  Pueblo,  Ferdinand,  and  Frijole  creeks.  A  population 
of  not  far  from  10,000  inhabits  this  basin,  and  yet  a  large  part  of  the 
land  is  still  wild."' 

Mr.  Poore,  in  his  report,  contained  in  a  Census  Bulletin  on  the 
Pueblo  Indians,  says  :  "  It  would  be  difficult  to  find  in  the  west,  where 
farming  is  dependent  upon  irrigation,  a  more  desirable  tract  of  land 
than  that  owned  by  these  Indians.  The  water,  carried  in  subwater- 
ways,  or  acequias,  commands  a  large  portion  of  the  reservation."^ 

Eight  or  ten  miles  west  of  the  valley  flows  the  Rio  Grande.  As 
one  looks  westward  he  sees  only  the  low  line  of  the  mesas  and  many 
miles  farther,  though  it  seems  but  few,  the  irregular  outline  of-the  dis- 
tant ranges  of  the  Rocky  mountains.  No  sign  of  the  Rio  Grande  flow- 
ing between  its  canon  walls  can  be  seen.  Far  to  the  south  rise  the 
nearer,  but  still  distant,  heights  of  the  Mora  range,  beyond  which  lies 
the  city  of  Santa  Fe.  To  the  north  stretches  the  gently  sloping  mesa 
as  far  as  the  eye  can  see,  rising  gradually  toward  the  east  and 
merging  into  the  foothills  of  the  Taos  range.  This  valley,  which  the 
American  and  the  Mexican  find  so  attractive,  the  Indian  had  discov- 
ered and  occupied  before  the  white  man  came.  Toward  its  northern 
end  and  close  to  the  foothills  on  the  eastern  side,  under  the  very 
shadow  of  the  towering  Taos  peak,  the  Spaniards,  when  they  first 
visited  the  country,  found  the  Indian  pueblo  of  Taos,  or  Te-uat-ha,^  as 
it  was  called  in  the  native  idiom.  Taos  was  then,  as  it  is  today,  the 
most  northerly  of  the  pueblos  and  has,  perhaps,  the  best  location. 

The  account  of  the  first  visit  of  the  Spaniards  to  Taos,  as  given  by 
Castaiieda,  presents  a  difficulty  which  it  may  be  well  to  state  even  if 

'  "U.  S.  Geographical  Survey  West  of  looth  Meridian,"  III,  Supplement :  Geology, 
pp.  364-5-  \ 

^"  Eleventh  Census  of  the  U.  S.,  Extra  Census  Bulletin,"  ^o^m?  Pueblo  Indians  of 
Arizona  and  Pueblo  Indians  of  New  Mexico,  p.  100. 

3  Papers  Arch.  Inst,  of  Ainer.,  Ill,  p.  123.  Bandelier  states  that  the  name  Taos  is 
corrupted  from  the  Tehua  word  Ta-ui,  The  Gilded  Man,  p.  149,  footnote. 


STUDY  OF  THE  PUEBLO  OF  TAOS  7 

no  light  be  thrown  on  the  matter.  In  1540  Coronado  had  set  out 
from  Mexico  for  the  north  and  particularly  to  search  for  the  rich  and 
popular  city  of  Ouivira,  of  which  he  had  heard.  After  he  and  his 
company  had  reached  Cibola  (Zuni),  Hernando  d'Alvarado  was  sent 
on  ahead  with  twenty  men  to  accompany  certain  Indians  who  had 
come  from  villages  to  the  east  to  see  the  strangers.  Alvarado  was  to 
return  in  eighty  days.  "  Alvarado  partit  done  avec  eux.  Cinq  jours 
apres  ils  arriverent  a  un  village  nomme  Acuco,  qui  est  construit  sur  un 
rocher.     Les  habitants  qui  peuvent  mettre  sur  pied  environ  deux  cents 

guerriers  sont  des  brigands  redoutes  dans  toute  la  province A 

trois  journees  de  la,  Alvarado  et  les  siens  arriverent  dans  une  province 

que  Ton  nomme  Tiguex A  cinq  journees  de  la,  Alvarado  arriva 

a  Cicuye,  village  tres-fortifie,  et  dont  les  maisons  ont  quatre  etages.'" 

When  Don  Tristan  d'Arellano  reached  Cibola  with  the  rest  of  the 
army,  Coronado  ordered  him  to  allow  the  army  a  rest  of  twenty  days 
and  then  to  follow  the  road  which  he  himself  was  about  to  take  to 
Tiguex.  At  Tiguex  Coronado  found  Alvarado  awaiting  him.  Later 
they  were  joined  by  Arellano  with  the  army.  Some  time  was  spent 
here  till,  finally,  the  people  rose  in  revolt  because  of  the  excessive 
demands  made  upon  them  by  the  soldiers.  While  the  siege  of  Tiguex 
was  in  progress,  Coronado  went  on  to  Cicuye  and  from  this  latter  point 
set  out  on  his  long  march  to  the  northeast.  When  he  had  been  on  his 
way  for  some  days,  provisions  began  to  run  short,  so  the  army  was  sent 
back  under  command  of  Arellano,  and  Coronado  went  on  with  only  a 
few  men. 

In  July  or  late  in  June,  1 541,  Arellano  reached  Tiguex  on  his  return 
march.  He  then  "donna  ordre  au  capitaine  Francisco  de  Barrio-Nuevo 
de  remonter  le  fleuve  avec  quelques  soldats,  dans  la  direction  du  nord. 
Cet  ofificier  visita  deux  provinces  :  I'une  se  nommait  Hemes,  et  renfer- 
mait  sept  villages  ;  I'autre  Yuque-Yunque."  The  inhabitants  of  Yuque- 
Yunque  "  se  retirerent  dans  les  montagnes,  ou  ils  en  avaient  quatre 
autres  fortifies,  dans  une  situation  tres-difilicile  :  Ton  ne  pouvait  y  par- 

venir  avec  les  chevaux A  vingt  lieues   plus  loin,  en  remontant 

la  riviere,  il  y  avait  un  grand  et  puissant  village  que  Ton  nommait 
Braba,  les  notres  lui  donnerent  le  nom  de  Valladolid.  II  etait  bati  sur 
les.  deux  rives  du  fleuve,  que  Ton  traversait  sur  les  ponts  construits  en 
madriers  de  pins,  tres-bien  equarris.    L'on  vit  dans  ce  village  les  etuves 

'  "  Relation  du  Voyage  de  Cibola  par  Pedro  de  Castaneda  de  Nagera."  H.  Ter- 
naux-Compans,  Voyage  de  Cibola,  pp.  69-71. 


8  STUDY  OF  THE  PUEBLO  OF  TAOS 

les  plus  grandes  et  les  plus  extraordinaires  de  tout  le  pays.  Elles 
etaient  soutenues  par  douze  pilliers,  dont  chacun  avait  deux  brasses  de 
tour  et  deux  toises  de  haut.  Le  capitaine  Hernando  d'Alvarado  avait 
deja  visite  ce  village  en  allant  a  la  decouverte  de  Cicuye.  La  contree 
est  fort  elevee  et  tres-froide ;  la  riviere  qui  I'arrose  est  fort  profonde  et 
rapide,  et  on  n'y  trouve  pas  de  gue.  De  la,  le  capitaine  Barrio-Nuevo 
revint  au  camp,  apres  avoir  laisse  tout  le  pays  parfaitement  tran- 
quille.'" 

In  the  identification  of  the  villages  mentioned  in  this  account  of 
Castafieda  there  is  some  difference  of  opinion.  Cibola,  it  is  generally 
agreed,  is  Zufii.  Acuco,  it  is  also  generally  agreed,  is  Acoma.  Tiguex 
has  been  located  by  Mr.  W.  W.  H.  Davis  on  the  Rio  Puerco,  which 
joins  the  Rio  Grande  near  the  present  town  of  La  Joya.""  Mr.  Simp- 
son places  it  "  on  the  Rio  Grande,  below  the  Rio  Puerco,  at  the  foot  of 
the  Socorro  mountains." ^  Mr.  Bandelier  believes  it  was  near  the  site 
of  the  modern  Bernalillo  on  the  Rio  Grande.  Mr.  Simpson  and  Mr- 
Bandelier  both  place  Cicuye  at  Pecos,  while  Mr.  Davis  places  it  on  the 
Rio  Grande,  "somewhere  in  the  valley  of  the  Guadalupe,  and  but  a 
few  miles  from  its  mouth. "'■*  Now,  it  will  be  noticed  that  Alvarado,  in 
his  march  from  Cibola  to  Cicuye,  traveled  from  Cibola  to  Acoma  in 
five  days,  from  Acoma  to  Tiguex  in  three  days,  and  from  Tiguex  to 
Cicuye  in  five  days  more.  But  if  Tiguex  and  Cicuye  were  at  any  one 
of  the  places  which  have  been  suggested,  and  if  the  Braba  mentioned 
by  Castaneda  were  situated  where  Taos  is  today,  it  is  difficult  to  see  how 
Alvarado  could  have  reached  Cicuye  in  the  time  he  did,  if  he  went  so 
far  north  as  Taos,  which  is  over  sixty  miles  in  a  direct  line  north  of 
Pecos.  It  is  further  hard  to  understand  how  he  could  have  reached 
Taos  without  having  seen  or  heard  of  the  Tehua  pueblos  of  Tesuque, 
Nambe,  Pojuaque,  San  Ildefonso,  Santa  Clara,  and  San  Juan.  If 
these  identical  villages  did  not  exist  then,  there  were,  nevertheless, 
Tehua  Indians  in  the  same  general  region.  Again,  the  river  which 
waters  Taos  valley  is  referred  to  as  very  deep  and  rapid,  and  as 
having  no  fords.  In  the  whole  valley  today  there  is  no  stream 
which   will   answer    this    description,   nor  is   it  easy   to   suppose   that 

'  H.  Ternaux-Compans,  Voyage  de  Cibola,  pp.  137-9. 
^W.  W.  H.  Davis,  The  Spanish   Conquest  of  New  Mexico,  p.  185,  note  i. 
3  General  Simpson,  "Coronado's  March,"  Smithsonian  Report,  1869,  p.  335. 
''Papers  Arch.  Inst,    of  Aiiier.,  I,  p.  17.     Davis,  The   Spanish    Conquest   of   N^ew 
Mexico,  p.  198,  note  i. 


STUDY  OF  THE  PUEBLO  OF  7^A0S  g 

the  streams  which  now  water  the  valley  were  once  so  deep  that 
they  could  not  be  forded.  Today  one  can  ford  any  of  the  streams 
atalmost  any  point  on  foot.  The  reference  may  be  to  the  Rio  Grande, 
though  it  certainly  does  not  water  that  part  of  the  valley  in  which  Taos 
pueblo  is  situated.  And  yet  Mr.  Bandelier  says  of  the  identity  of  Braba 
and  Taos  "  it  is  unmistakable." '  Certainly  the  description  of  the  village 
as  being  built  upon  the  two  banks  of  a  stream  which  one  could  cross 
on  bridges  made  of  well-squared  timbers  is  in  exact  accord  with  the 
conditions  at  Taos  today.  I  find  no  reference  in  Mr.  Bandelier's  reports 
to  Alvarado's  visit  to  Taos,  but  Mr.  Davis  says,  "Up  to  the  point  where 
the  army  was  left  upon  the  plains,  the  Spaniards  had  passed  through 
the  following  provinces,  which  are  given  in  the  words  of  Castaneda."^ 
Then  follows  the  list,  which  includes  "  Valladolid  or  Braba,"  and  ends 
with  the  statement,  "  Tiguex  is  the  central  point,  and  Valladolid  the 
last  toward  the  North-east." 

This  question  of  location  is  apart  from  the  other  question,  whether 
the  people  are  today  living  in  the  same  buildings  which  the  Spaniards 
saw.  Mr.  Bandelier  positively  says:  "With  the  exception  of  Acoma, 
there  is  not  a  single  pueblo  standing  where  it  was  at  the  time  of  Coro- 
nado,  or  even  sixty  years  later,  when  Juan  de  Ohate  accomplished  the 
peaceable  reduction  of  the  New  Mexican  village  Indians."^ 

It  is  not  particularly  significant  in  this  connection,  but  it  may  be 
noted  that  at  Taos,  only  a  few  rods  east  from  the  present  houses,  are 
the  ruins  of  older  buildings.  They  are  little  more  than  a  heap  of 
earth  and  loose  stones,  but  one  can  occasionally  find  a  very  distinct 
fragment  of  an  old  wall  built  of  adobe  bricks  of  a  different  form  from 
those  now  made  by  the  Taos  people.  The  people  themselves  say,  and 
it  is  undoubtedly  true,  that  in  the  old  days  adobe  bricks  were  not  made, 
but  a  wall  was  built  by  laying  one  layer  of  mud  on  another,  and  simply 
allowing  time  for  each   layer  to  dry.     They  further   say  that  not  long 

'^Papers  Arch.  Inst,  of  Anier.,  I,  p.  23,  footnote. 
^77/1?  Spanish  Conquest  of  New  Mexico,  p.  221. 

^Papers  Arch.  Inst,  of  Amer.,  Ill,  p.  34. 

I  do  not  know  what  Mr.  Bandelier's  authority  is  for  making  this  statement,  but, 
in  view  of  the  well-known  fact  that  the  pueblo  peoples  have  so  often  moved  their 
towns,  it  seems  safe  enough  without  evidence  to  the  contrary  to  hold  this  view.  I 
notice  that  Mr.  Prince  says  :  "  In  several  instances,  as  at  Taos  and  in  the  western 
pueblos,  the  people  are  now  living  in  identically  the  same  houses  which  were  then  (when 
Columbus  discovered  America)  occupied." — L.  B.  Prince,  Historical  Sketches  of  New 
Mexico,  p.  31. 


lO  STUDY  OF  THE  PUEBLO  OF  TAOS 

ago  there  were  other  ruins  just  across  the  little  stream.  So  it  may  easily 
be  that  these  ruins,  to  which  the  people  still  point  as  their  former 
homes,  situated  with  reference  to  the  creek  just  as  are  the  houses  of 
today,  are  what  is  left  of  the  houses  which  the  Spaniards  saw. 

Taos  appears  several  times  prominently  in  opposition  to  the  Span- 
iards. Possibly  its  position  farther  from  Spanish  influence,  or  the 
necessity  which  the  people  were  under  of  defending  themselves  from 
their  enemies,  enabled  it  to  maintain  its  independence  more  effectively 
than  the  villacres  farther  south. 

Some  time  after  1650  a  conspiracy  was  formed  at  Taos  and  spread 
as  far  as  Moqui.  I  quote  from  Bandelier :  "Ydespues  de  algun 
tempo  despacharon  del  pueblo  de  Taos  dos  gamuzas  con  algunas  pin- 
turas  por  los  pueblos  de  la  custodia,  con  senales  de  conjuracion  a  su 
modo,  para  convocar  la  gente  a  nuevo  alzamiento,  y  que  dichas  gamu- 
zas pasaron  hasta  la  provincia  de  Moqui  donde  no  quisieron  adraitirlos, 
y  ceso  el  pacto  por  entonces.'"  Although  Po-pe,  the  instigator  of 
the  great  conspiracy  of  1680,  was  an  Indian  of  San  Juan,  he  seems  to 
have  made  his  plans  at  Taos  and  to  have  received  much  assistance 
from  the  people  there.  Certain  it  is  that  they  were  among  the  last  to 
submit  to  de  Vargas  at  the  time  of  the  reconquest  in  1692.  After  de 
Vargas  had  taken  Santa  Fe,  he  set  out  against  some  more  distant  vil- 
lages. "The  Indians  of  the  Taos  pueblo,  who  dwelt  in  a  beautiful  and 
fertile  valley  some  seventy-five  miles  to  the  North,  continued  to  be 
very  hostile  toward  their  brethren  who  were  disposed  to  acknowledge 
the  authority  of  the  Spaniards,  and  Vargas  had  been  requested  by 
the  Tanos,  Teguas,  and  some  of  the  Picoris  Indians,  to  exterminate 
them."^  Arrived  at  the  pueblo,  he  found  it  deserted.  The  Indians 
had  fled  to  the  mountains.  They  were,  however,  induced  to  return, 
and  quiet  was  restored. 

Again  in  1694  de  Vargas  was  compelled  to  march  on  Taos.  As 
before  he  found  the  village  deserted,  and  when  the  people  refused  to 
return  to  their  homes,  he  sacked  the  town. 

The  last  time  when  the  Taos  people  gave  any  trouble  was  at  the 
time  of  the  Taos  rebellion  in  1847.  The  country  was  disturbed 
owing  to  the  relations  between  the  United  States  and  Mexico,  and  the 
insurrection  was  brought  about  more  by  the  Mexicans  than  by  the 
Indians  themselves.     The  ruins  of  the  church  within  which  the  Pueblo 

'  Papers  Arch.  Inst,  of  Amer.,  Ill,  p.  139,  footnote. 
^  Davis,  T/it  Spanish  Conquest  of  New  Mexico,  p.  341. 


STUDY  OF  THE  PUEBLO  OF  TAOS  II 

people  made  their  last  stand  against  the  white  people  are  still  at  Taos. 
The  Pueblo  Indian  has  always  shown  himself  brave  and  ready  to  fight 
when  occasion  required,  but  peaceable  and  friendly  toward  those  with 
whom  cordial  relations  existed. 

The  final  word  has  yet  to  be  said  on  the  linguistic  relations  of  the 
Pueblos  of  New  Mexico.  Five  groups  may  be  recognized  —  Tiguas, 
Tehuas,  Queres,  Jemez,  and  Zufii.  Mr.  Powell  in  his  "Indian  Lin- 
guistic Families  North  of  Mexico"'  includes  Tiguas,  Tehuas,  and 
Jemez  with  the  Tanos  and  Piros,  the  two  latter  of  whom  are  extinct  as 
distinct  tribes,  as  Tafioan,  thus  giving  but  three  stock  languages 
amonsf  the  New  Mexican  Pueblos. 

The  Tehuas  occupy  a  compact  group  of  villages  in  the  Rio  Grande 
valley  —  San  Juan,  Santa  Clara,  San  Ildefonso,  Nambe,  Pojuaque,  and 
Tesuque.  The  language  spoken  at  these  villages  is  not  merely  a  series 
of  dialects  of  one  language,  but  is  one  and  the  same  language,  under- 
stood by  all  the  people  of  all  the  villages.  Before  the  Tanos  became 
extinct  as  a  tribe  they  lived  about  thirty  miles  south  of  the  Tehuas,^ 
and  were  the  southern  division  of  the  same  linguistic  group.  The 
Queres  villages,  Cochiti,  San  Felipe,  Santo  Domingo,  Sia,  Santa  Ana, 
Laguna,  and  Acoma,  while  more  scattered  than  those  of  the  Tehuas, 
are  not  separated  from  one  another  by  villages  of  another  stock  lan- 
guage.    The  Jemez  and  Zuni  occupy  today  but  a  single  pueblo  each. 

In  distinction  from  these  present  relations,  the  position  of  the  Tiguas 
is  peculiar;  there  is  a  northern  and  a  southern  group.  In  the  north 
is  Taos  ;  about  fifteen  miles  south  from  it  across  the  mountains  lies 
Picuris.  These  two  villages  are  the  homes  of  the  northern  Tiguas. 
Nearly  ninety  miles  southwest  in  a  direct  line  is  Sandia,  and  twenty-five 
miles  further  south,  Isleta,  the  two  villages  where  the  southern  Tiguas 
now  live.  Between  these  two  groups  are  all  the  pueblos  of  the  Tehuas 
and  certain  of  the  Queres.  Another  noticeable  thing  about  the  Tigua 
pueblos  is  that  the  languages  are  not  identical  as  are  those  of  the 
Tehua  towns,  but  differ  so  much  that  the  people  do  not  recognize 
them  as  being  related  to  one  another.  An  intelligent  Taos  Indian 
said  to  me  :  "  When  people  tell  you  Picuris  speak  the  same  language 
we  do,  that  is  not  true."  He,  however,  admitted  the  Picuris  people 
could  understand  them,  although  the  Picuris  language  is  not  intelli- 
gible to  the  Taos  people.     Of  the  Isleta  language   he  said  he  could 

*  Seventh  Annual  Report,  Bureau  of  Ethnology. 
'Papers  Arch.  Inst,  of  Amer.,  Ill,  p.  125. 


12  STUDY  OF  THE  PUEBLO  OF  TAOS 

sometimes  understand  a  word  or  two,  and  he  thought  the  language 
would  be  easy  for  him  to  learn.  In  all  probability  practically  the  same 
statements  might  be  made  with  reference  to  Sandia.  They  indicate 
simply  that  the  separation  of  these  four  towns  has  been  so  long  and 
so  complete  as  to  allow  the  languages  to  diverge  from  each  other 
greatly,  and  this,  too,  in  spite  of  the  fact  that  Taos  and  Picuris  are  not 
more  than  fifteen  or  twenty  miles  apart,  while  only  twenty-five  miles 
separate  Sandia  and  Isleta.  It  is  true  that  the  relations  of  towns, 
even  of  those  belonging  to  the  same  linguistic  stock,  have  not  always 
been  friendly,  though  their  manners  and  customs  have  continued 
similar. 

Mr.  Powell  includes  the  Moqui  Pueblo  languages,  excepting  that 
of  Hano,  in  the  Shoshonean  family.'  The  connection  of  the  New 
Mexican  Pueblo  languages  with  any  of  the  great  linguistic  families  is 
by  no  means  so  certain.  In  speaking  of  the  Tafioan  family,  Mr. 
Powell  says:  "Recent  investigations  of  the  dialect  spoken  at  Taos 
and  soine  of  the  other  pueblos  of  this  group  show  a  considerable  body 
of  words  having  Shoshonean  affinities,  and  it  is  by  no  means  improb- 
able that  further  research  will  result  in  proving  the  radical  relation- 
ship of  these  languages  to  the  Shoshonean  family.  The  analysis  of 
the  language  has  not  yet,  however,  proceeded  far  enough  to  warrant  a 
decided  opinion.'"'  Even  if  this  relationship  with  the  Shoshonean 
be  established,  the  Queres  and  the  Zuiii  would  still  stand  alone.  Of 
the  relation  between  them  Mr.  Powell  says  the  "conclusion  that  they 
were  entirely  distinct  has  been  fully  substantiated."^  If  no  connection 
can  be  established  for  certain  of  these  groups,  then  they  are  either 
remnants  of  languages  once  more  extensive,  or  cases  of  limited  inde- 
pendent development  of  language. 

Language  is  one  of  the  important  guides  to  relationship.  The 
Indian  himself  can  often  tell  you  with  confidence  whence  he  came. 
We  should  be  glad  if  we  could  meet  the  same  problem  with  the  same 
confidence.  "To  regard  the  Pueblos  of  today  as  anything  else  but  a 
mongrel  breed,  physically  speaking,  would  be  a  grave  mistake.""  They 
have  intermarried  so  long  with  the  Navajos  and  Apaches,  and  to  some 
extent  with  the  Utes  and  other  roaming  Indians,  that  they  are  no 
longer  of  pure  stock.     This  intermarrying  has  probably  been  much 

'Seventh  Annual  Report,  Bureau  of  Ethnology,  p.  no. 

""  Ibid.,  p.  122.  'ilbid.,  pp.  138-9. 

*  Papers  Arc/i.  hist,  of  Ainer.,  Ill,  p.  262. 


STUDY  OF  THE  FUEBLO  OF  TAOS  13 

more  common  since  the  coming  of  the  Spaniards  than  before,  so  the 
Pueblo  people  of  three  hundred  and  fifty  years  ago  were  of  purer  stock 
than  those  of  today. 

As  Mr.  Gushing  has  shown  '  the  Zuiii  to  have  come  in  part  from 
the  south  and  in  part  from  the  north,  and  to  have  united  to  form  one 
people,  so  it  may  well  be  of  the  other  village  peoples  that  they  are  not 
of  one  origin,  but  of  several.  With  considerable  regularity  and  per- 
sistencv  the  traditions  of  the  Pueblo  Indians,  as  well  as  those  of  some 
Mexican  tribes,  refer  to  the  north  as  their  original  home.  To  this  fact 
we  must  attach  some  significance.  Northwesterly  from  the  Pueblo 
region  are  the  ruins  of  the  cliff  and  cave  dwellers.  Mr.  Gushing  has 
explained  the  underground  position  of  the  kivas  at  Zuni  as  the  result 
of  vears  of  life  in  the  caves  and  cliffs,  where  lack  of  room  necessitated 
the  building  of  these  sleeping  places  for  men  outside  of  and  below  the 
floor  of  the  cave  proper. ""  If  this  explanation  be  correct,  as  it  seems 
to  be,  the  argument  must  apply  with  equal  force  to  other  towns  than 
Zuiii.  At  Taos  and  at  Picuris  the  kivas  are  mainly  underground. 
This  fact  argues  as  plainly  as  in  the  case  of  Zuiii  that  a  part  at  least 
of  the  people  were  at  one  time  living  in  the  caves  and  cliffs  of  the  caiion 
region  northwest  of  their  present  homes.  Not  alone  the  physical  type, 
but  also  the  language,  and  perhaps,  too,  the  customs  and  traditions,  of 
the  Pueblos  have  been  to  some  extent  modified  by  intermixture  with 
outside  tribes.  Traditions  and  customs,  however,  we  should  expect 
to  change  least. 

Reference  will  be  made  later  more  specificallv  to  certain  traditions 
related  by  the  Taos  people  concerning  their  early  home,  but  I  think 
we  may  with  safety  hold  to  the  idea  that  most  of  them  came  from  the 
cliff-dwelling  region,  and  that,  after  living  for  a  time  in  several  places, 
they  settled  in  the  vallev  where  thev  now  live  some  time  previous  to 
the  coming  of  the  Spaniards. 

The  number  of  the  Pueblo  Indians  at  the  time  of  their  discovery 
has  been  variously  estimated.  The  largest  estimate  is  that  of  Antonio  de 
Espejo,  whose  total  figures  for  all  the  Pueblos  would  give  about  250,000. 
From  this  number  the  estimates  run  all  the  way  down  to  23,000. 
Vetancurt  gives  the  figures  for  the  year  1660  at  a  little  over  23, 000. ^ 

'"Outlines    of    Zuiii   Creation    Mvths,"    Thirteenth    Annual    Report,  Bureau    of 
Ethnology,  p.  343. 
='/^2fl'.,  pp.  344-5. 
"^Papers  Arch.  Inst,  of  Atner.,  Ill,  p.  121,  footnote  I. 


14  STUDY  OF  THE  PUEBLO  OF  TAOS 

Bandelier  says  :  "  The  villages  of  that  time  (first  half  of  the  sixteenth 
century)  were  on  an  average  much  smaller  than  those  of  today 
inhabited  by  Pueblo  Indians,  but  there  was  a  greater  number  of  them. 
The  aggregate  population  of  the  pueblos  in  the  sixteenth  and  seven- 
teenth centuries  did  not  exceed  twenty-five  thousand  souls."'  Mr. 
Gushing   says:    "At   the   time   of    the  Spanish   conquest   the   Pueblo 

Indians  numbered,  all   told,  more  than    30,000 The    total 

population  of  the  modern  towns  is  about  10,000."  ^ 

Figures  given  in  a  Census  Bulletin  of  the  Eleventh  Census  show 
that  in  1864,  when  the  first  complete  and  reliable  enumeration  in 
modern  times  was  made,  the  Pueblo  people  of  New  Mexico  numbered 
7,066;  in  1890  there  were  8,287.^  These  figures  show  an  increase  in  26 
years  of  17  per  cent.  If  the  population  in  1890  be  compared  with 
the  conservative  estimate  of  1660  (23,000),  a  loss  of  64  per  cent, 
is  shown.  This  falling  off  is  to  be  explained  by  hostilities  between 
the  pueblos,  by  raids  of  roving  Indians,  by  epidemic  diseases,  and 
perhaps  by  indirect  effects  due  to  contact  with  the  whites.  United 
States  Indian  Agent  John  Ward  in  his  report  submitted  in  June, 
1864,  says:  "The  greater  number  of  the  Pueblos  are  evidently  on 
the  increase,  or  at  least  ....  the  year  1863  has  proved  very 
prolific.  Notwithstanding  this,  however,  from  all  that  can  be  learned 
and  from  many  years  of  almost  daily  intercourse  with  these  people, 
I  am  fully  convinced  that  in  the  aggregate  the  pueblo  population  of 
New  Mexico  is  gradually  but  surely  decreasing."  "  This  may  have 
been  true  when  it  was  written,  but  does  not  seem  to  be  the  case  in 
more  recent  times,  if  the  census  reports  may  be  relied  upon.  It  has, 
however,  to  be  admitted  that  the  Pueblo  people  are  very  suspicious  of 
government  agents  and  of  any  white  man  who  is  inquiring  into  their 
affairs;  so  they  frequently  give  inaccurate  and  incomplete  answers. 

The  population  of  Taos  in  1864  the  same  bulletin  gives  as  361. 
In  1890  it  was  401.  This  is  an  increase  of  11  per  cent,  in  26  years. 
The  distribution  as  regards  sex,  age,  and  occupation  is  shown  as  fol- 
lows :  males,  213  ;  females,  188  ;  under  6  years  of  age,  52  ;  over  5  and  to 
1 8,  inclusive,  114  ;  over  18,235;  over  70, 11;  heads  of  families,  96  ;  owners 

^Papers  Arch.  Inst,  of  Anier.,  Ill,  pp.  120-21. 
Castauecla  gives  71  pueblos.     Today  there  are  26. 
'^  Johnson'' s  Encyclopedia,  article  "  Pueblo  Indians." 

3  "Eleventh  Census  of  U.  S.,  Extra  Census   Bulletin,"  Moqui  Pueblo  Indians  of 
Arizona  and  Pueblo  Indians  of  New  Mexico,  p.  90. 
'■Ibid.,  p.  80. 


STUDY  OF  THE  PUEBLO  OF  TAOS  15 

of  houses,  96  ;  farmers,  114;  herders,  4  ;  day  laborers,  -i^^)-^  With  regard 
to  sex  this  is  perhaps  correct  enough,  but  as  many  even  of  the  young 
men  do  not  know  their  own  ages,  the  numbers  by  ages  cannot  be 
relied  upon,  nor  is  it  likely  that  the  other  figures  are  more  than 
approximately  correct.  However,  they  give  an  idea  of  the  numbers 
of  the  children  and  the  occupation  of  the  people. 

During  the  time  I  was  at  Taos,  three  months  in  the  summer  of 
1896,  two  deaths  occurred,  both  those  of  very  young  children,  and  a 
few  months  after  I  left  I  learned  of  the  death  of  a  woman  of  about  50 
years  of  age.  During  that  same  period  of  three  months  there  were  no 
births.  Of  course  no  importance  can  be  attached  to  observations 
extending  over  so  short  a  time.  As  nearly  as  I  could  learn  from 
Americans  living  at  the  county  seat  three  miles  from  the  pueblo,  the 
village  has  been  just  about  holding  its  own  during  the  last  six  years. 

Land  tenure  among  the  Pueblo  Indians,  as  with  other  sedentary 
Indians,  was  tribal,  for  their  social  organization  was  tribal.  Owner- 
ship of  land  was  the  ownership  of  a  range  by  a  tribe.  This  range  had 
no  well-defined  limits.  Between  a  given  tribe  and  its  nearest  neighbor 
there  was  often  a  debatable  ground  to  which  neither  had  undisputed 
claim,  but  no  definite  line  separated  the  two  areas.  The  tribe  fre- 
quently moved  within  its  own  area.  This  continued  for  many  years 
after  the  Spaniards  gained  control  of  New  Mexico.  And  the  prevail- 
ing customs  of  land  tenure  were  not  interfered  with  by  the  order  of 
the  king  of  Spain,  which,  according  to  Mr.  Bandelier,  "  laid  the 
foundation  of  the  so-called  Pueblo  Grants  of  New  Mexico."^  In 
another  place  it  is  stated  :  "  The  so-called  Pueblo  Grants  are  not  grants, 
they  are  limitations  placed  to  the  erratic  tendencies  of  the  sedentary, 
or  rather  land-tilling  aborigines.  Previously  the  villages  were  moved 
about  within  the  range  at  will,  and  upon  the  slightest  provocation."  ^ 
These  orders  were  simply  to  say  to  the  Indians  that  land  outside  the 
limits  laid  down  did.  not  belong  to  them,  and  was  not  to  be  used  by 
them.  It  is  practically  these  same  grants  which  the  Indians  hold 
today. 

Tribal  ownership  of  land  in  its  simplicity  implies  that  an  individ- 
ual merely  has  the  use  of  a  certain  amount  of  land,  and  that,  when  he 
no  longer  uses  it,  it  again   becomes  common   property.     But  contact 

'  "  Eleventh  Census  of  U.  S.,  Extra  Census  Bulletin,"  Moqui  Pueblo  Indians  of 
Arizona  and  Pueblo  hidians  of  New  Mexico,  p.  92 

'^Papers  A?-ch.  Inst,  of  Ainer.,  Ill,  p.  202.  '^ Ibid.,  p.  155,  footnote. 


1 6  STUDY  OF  THE  PUEBLO  OF  TAOS 

with  other  peoples  is  bringing  changes  in  the  custom  of  tribal  owner- 
ship. It  is  true  Mr.  Bandelier,  in  speaking  of  the  individual  owner  of 
land,  says:  "  If  he  fails  to  cultivate  it,  or  to  have  it  cultivated  for  the 
space  of  a  year,  the  tract  reverts  to  the  commonalty,  and  is  at  the  dis- 
posal of  the  next  applicant  for  tillable  soil."  '  I  very  much  doubt  if 
this  is  still  true  at  Taos.  While  I  cannot  speak  positively  about  it,  I 
believe  the  Taos  Indian  may  do  what  he  pleases  with  his  land,  till  it, 
lease  it,  let  it  lie  fallow,  or  sell  it,  so  long  as  he  does  not  sell  it  outside 
the  tribe. 

The  Pueblo  of  Taos  today  has  a  grant  of  twenty-seven  and  a  half 
square  miles,  or  1 7,36o^W.acres,  according  to  the  records  of  the  Indian 
agency  at  Santa  Fe,  and  it  is  so  stated  in  a  bulletin  of  the  last  census. 
But  Captain  Bullis,  the  Indian  agent,  informed  me  that  years  ago,  when 
the  pueblo  was  often  in  danger  of  attack  from  other  Indians,  Mexicans 
had  been  allowed  to  settle  on  the  grant  on  condition  that  they  would 
assist  in  defending  Taos  against  its  enemies.  They  occupied  about 
one-half  of  the  grant,  and,  as  ten  years'  undisputed  possession  of  land 
in  New  Mexico  gives  title,  the  Indians,  in  reality,  have  today  but  one- 
half  the  number  of  acres  mentioned.  The  pueblo  itself  lies  close  to 
the  mountains,  and  a  considerable  portion  of  this  land  is  mountainous. 
That  which  lies  along  the  creeks  is  excellent  pasture  land,  but  there 
remains  a  great  deal  which  can  never  be  of  any  use  except  for  mining. 
The  uncultivated  land  is  today,  as  the  whole  area  undoubtedly  was  at 
one  time,  owned  in  common  by  the  pueblo.  The  pasture  lands  in  the 
foothills,  and  the  mesa  land  north  and  west  of  the  village,  still  lie 
open  for  the  use  of  anyone  in  the  pueblo.  The  only  valuable  piece  of 
land  which  is  not  owned  individually,  and  which  is  near  the  village,  is  a 
common  pasture  of  twenty  or  more  acres.  It  is  so  poorly  fenced  that 
everyone  who  has  horses,  cattle,  or  burros,  must  take  his  turn  watching 
the  stock  to  prevent  their  wandering  out  into  the  fields  of  grain. 

At  Taos,  as  everywhere  else,  some  men  are  more  prosperous  than 
others ;  so  the  amounts  of  land  owned  vary  greatly.  The  sections  of 
land  are  small,  but  one  man  often  owns  several  pieces,  separated  from 
one  another  by  one  or  two  miles.  "  The  fields  behind  the  town  towards 
the  mountain  are  divided  by  scrub  willow,  wild  plum,  and  blackberry 
bushes,  and  seldom  contain  more  than  three  or  four  acres." °    A  fence  is 

'  Papers  Arch.  Ivst.  of  Amer.,  Ill,  p.  272. 

^"Eleventh  Census  of  U.  S.,  Extra  Census  Bulletin,"  Moqiii  Pueblo  Indians  of 
Arizona  and  Pueblo  Indians  of  New  Mexico,  p.  100. 


STUDY  OF  THE  PUEBLO  OF  TAOS  17 

not  often  seen.  There  is  a  fence  the  greater  part  of  the  distance 
around  the  common  pasture,  and  there  are,  besides,  a  few  pastures 
belonging  to  certain  families  which  are  fenced.  Sometimes  a  rude, 
temporary  fence  is  built  along  a  roadway  when  growing  crops  are  in 
the  fields  near  by.  The  boundaries  between  the  plots  of  ground  are 
usually  irrigation  ditches,  along  which  grow  plum  bushes  and  willows. 
These  are  often  very  dense,  and  furnish  a  satisfactory  and  effectively' 
marked  line. 

Just  east  of  the  pueblo  is  a  break  in  the  mountain  chain.  Down 
this  gap  comes  Pueblo  creek,  the  principal  stream  upon  which  the 
people  are  dependent  for  their  water.  It  would  be  hard  to  find  in  the 
most  favored  parts  of  New  England  a  more  attractive  place  than  is  this 
stream  for  several  miles  along  its  course  above  the  pueblo.  It  is  filled 
with  trout,  shaded  by  willows,  choke  cherry,  and  cottonwood  trees,  and 
bordered  with  underbrush.  The  trees  end  abruptly  at  the  pueblo,  and 
where  the  stream  flows  through  the  town  both  banks  are  clear  except 
for  a  few  low  bushes.  But  just  below  the  town  the  fringe  of  willows 
begins  again  and  extends  for  half  a  mile  or  more.  The  people  believe 
that  if  the  trees  above  the  town  were  cut  down  the  water  would  dry  up, 
so  no  one  is  allowed  to  cut  them.  Very  likely  there  fs  some  ground  for 
this  fear,  though  perhaps  the  Indians  have  not  reached  the  real  explana- 
tion. At  one  time,  many  years  ago,  there  were  trees  growing  along, 
the  banks  within  the  town  itself.  One  day  a  boy  was  lying  asleep  down 
by  the  stream  under  the  trees  and  was  killed  by  marauding  Indians, 
who,  sheltered  by  the  trees,  had  slipped  into  the  heart  of  the  town 
unobserved.  This  was  probably  but  one  of  many  similar  attacks. 
Then,  too,  my  friend  somewhat  naively  explained  to  me,  they  had  to 
clean  up  under  the  trees  every  spring.  So  they  cut  them  down  and 
cleared  up  the  banks. 

About  two  miles  above  the  village  the  first  irrigation  ditches  branch 
off  from  the  creek.  Three  or  four  main  ditches  tap  the  stream  on 
each  side,  and  these  ramify  into  small  channels  until  the  whole  of  the 
cultivated  area  is  reached.  There  are  other  ditches  to  bring  water 
from  Lucerro  creek,  which  comes  down  from  the  mountains  a  short 
distance  north  of  Pueblo  creek.  One  of  the  larger  ditches  was  made 
by  the  Indians  years  ago,  under  the  direction  of  the  priests,  to  carry 
water  to  a  mill  about  three  miles  away.  It  is  still  used,  but  now  only 
for  irrigation. 

Every  Indian  pueblo  had  to  solve  the  problem  of  defense.     Some- 


1 8  STUDY  OF  THE  PUEBLO  OF  TAOS 

times  the  solution  was  found  on  a  high  mesa,  as  at  Acoma,  or  in  a  hol- 
low square  arrangement  of  the  buildings,  as  at  Tesuque,  or  in  a  wide, 
open  plain.  The  villages  were  often  located  nsar  some  high  mountain, 
mesa,  or  cliff,  to  which  the  people  could  flee  in  time  of  danger.  As 
the  Zuni  fled  to  To-yo-a-la-na,  the  Taos  people  several  times  aban- 
doned their  homes  and  took  refuge  in  the  foothills  beneath  the  great 
Taos  peak,  which  they  call  Sul-hwa-tu-na.' 

But  at  Taos  there  was  no  cliff  on  which  to  build  ;  there  was  no  wide, 
open  plain.  The  Indians  might  have  built  their  village  as  a  hollow 
square,  but  instead  they  built  great,  high  houses  and  surrounded  them 
by  a  wall.  This  wall  is  now  not  more  than  four  feet  high,  but  it  still  sur- 
rounds the  original  area  of  the  village,  and  one  may  still  see  the  loop- 
holes which  were  left  to  shoot  through  at  the  enemy  outside.  The 
original  height  of  the  wall  was  about  eight  feet.  A  walled  pueblo 
seems  to  have  been  unusual.  Castaiieda  speaks  of  a  wall  surrounding 
Cicuye,  which  has  been  identified  with  Pecos.  "  Le  village  est  envi- 
ronne  en  outre  d'une  muraille  de  pierre  assez  basse."" 

Of  the  high  houses  at  Taos  there  are  two,  one  on  each  side  of  the 
creek  which  flows  through  the  center  of  the  town.  "Taos  and  Zuiii  are 
the  only  pueblos  with  four  and  five  storied  buildings,  and  the  former 
may  be  called  the  old-fashioned  pueblo  par  excellence,  with  its  two  tall 
houses  sheltering  the  entire  tribe  of  four  hundred  souls."  ^  At  one  time, 
without  doubt,  the  two  main  houses  did  shelter  the  entire  tribe,  but 
today  small  groups  of  buildings,  one  or  two  stories  high,  have  been  built 
both  within  the  old  wall  and  outside.  Today  the  people  do  not  live  in 
as  small  a  space  as  they  once  did. 

These  great  houses  were  once  communal,  were  owned  by  the  peo- 
ple in  common.  There  are  still  memories  of  such  a  condition. 
Today  a  single  one  of  the  many  rooms,  or  two,  or  even  three  or  four, 
are  owned  by  individuals,  and  pass  down  from  father  to  son  or  daugh- 
ter, but  do  not  revert  to  the  community. 

The  great  houses  are  spoken  of  by  some  writers  as  six  and  seven, 
and  even  as  nine,  stories  in  height.  However  high  they  may  have 
been  once  I  do  not  know.  Certain  it  is  that  today  the  North  House 
is  five  stories  high,  and  the  South  House  but  four  stories.     The  height 

'On  a  map  issued  with  the  reports  of  the  "  U.  S.  Geographical  Survey  West  of  looth 
Meridian  "  the  elevation  of  Taos  peak  is  given  as  13,447  feet. 
^H.  Ternaux-Compans,  Voyage  de  Cibola,  p.  177. 
'^Papers  Arch.  Inst,  of  Amer.,  Ill,  p.  265. 


STUDY  OF  THE  PUEBLO  OF  TAOS  19 

of  the  buildings  could  not  be  increased  more  than  one  story,  if  the 
stepped  form  were  retained,  except,  of  course,  by  enlarging  the  base 
of  the  pyramid,  for  the  highest  story  of  each  of  the  houses  has  but 
two  or  three  rooms. 

Mr.  Lummis  speaks  of  the  houses  as  pyramids,'  and  so  they  appear, 
irregular,  and  receding  by  four  or  five  great  steps  to  the  top.  The 
ground  floor  covers  a  large  area,  according  to  Mr.  Davis  about  three 
or  four  hundred  feet  by  one  hundred  and  fifty  for  each  building. "" 
The  second  story  recedes  by  the  depth  of  one  room,  the  third  story 
recedes  again,  and  so  on  to  the  top  story.  Today,  with  few  excep- 
tions, entrance  may  be  had  to  the  rooms  through  doorways.  Not  long 
ago  the  lowest  story  at  least  had  no  doorways.  Mr.  Davis  speaks  as 
if  the  upper  tiers  of  rooms  as  well  were  without  doorways,^  but  it 
seems  more  likely  that  all  the  rooms,  excepting  those  of  the  first  story, 
always  had  openings  in  the  side  walls  for  the  people  to  pass  in  and 
out,  though  the  doors  themselves  were  of  Spanish  introduction. 
Mr.  Victor  Mindeleff,  in  his  Study  of  Pueblo  Architecture,  says  :  "  In 
ancient  times  the  larger  doorways  of  the  upper  terraces  were  probably 
never  closed,  except  by  means  of  blankets  or  rabbit-skin  robes  hung 
over  them  in  cold  weather.  Examples  have  been  seen  that  seem  to 
have  been  constructed  with  this  object  in  view,  for  a  slight  pole,  of  the 
same  kind  as  those  used  in  the  lintels,  is  built  into  the  masonry  of  the 
jambs  a  few  inches  below  the  lintel  proper."  "  Plainly,  in  his  opinion, 
there  were  doorways  in  the  upper  stories  even  in  ancient  times. 

The  only  entrance  to  rooms  in  the  first  story  was  through  a  trap- 
door in  the  roof.  One  had  first  to  climb  a  ladder  to  the  roof,  and 
then  climb  down  another  ladder  into  the  room  below.  The  terraced 
form  of  the  houses  gave  a  landing  in  front  of  the  rooms  on  every 
floor,  from  which  the  people  climbed  to  the  rooms  above.  The  lad- 
ders are  still  in  use  and  are  convenient  and  simple  enough.  Even 
though  the  houses  are  not  the  same  which  the  Spaniards  saw,  they 
probably  present  much  the  same  appearance,  except  for  the  doors  and 
the  chimneys  which  the  Indians  have  learned  from  the  Spaniards  to 
make.  The  chimneys  are  low  and  stumpy,  built  usually  of  adobe  and 
often  capped  with  a  broken  pot. 

^  Land  of  Sunshine,  Vol.  VI,  p.  141.  ^Ibid.,  p.  343,  footnote. 

"  Davis,  The  Spanish  Cottqitest  of  New  Mexico,  p.  343,  footnote. 

*"  A  Study  of  Pueblo  Architecture  in  Tusayan  and  Cibola,"  Eighth  Annual 
Report,  Bureau  of  Ethnology,  p.  182. 


20  STUDY  OF  THE  PUEBLO  OF  TAOS 

The  windows  of  the  Taos  houses  have  not  changed  much  since 
ancient  times.  They  are  usually  small  holes,  a  foot  square  or  less,  left 
in  the  wall  near  the  ceiling  and  intended  only  to  admit  light.  In  sum- 
mer they  are  uncovered  and  in  winter  are  often  closed  up  altogether. 
I  have  never  seen  gypsum  used  for  window  panes,  as  it  is  at  other 
pueblos.  A  curious  instance  of  the  conservatism  of  the  people  is  seen 
in  the  fact  that  within  the  limits  of  the  old  wall  the  use  of  glass  in 
the  windows  is  not  allowed.  Outside  this  wall  in  a  few  more  modern 
houses  one  sees  a  glass  window  or  two. 

The  interior  of  a  room  at  Taos  is  very  simple.  I  recall  one  in 
which  a  man,  his  wife,  and  two  children  were  living.  It  was  a  room 
about  seventeen  feet  square  and  ten  feet  high.  It  was  built  but  a  few 
years  ago,  and  is  unusually  high,  even  for  a  modern  room,  for  some 
are  so  low  that  one  can  just  stand  upright;  in  some  of  the  older  rooms 
one  is  even  compelled  to  stoop  when  standing.  The  entrance  to  this 
room  is  on  the  north  side  near  the  northwest  corner.  In  the  middle 
of  the  north  side  is  the  fireplace,  where  the  family  cooking  is  done. 
A  little  three-legged,  iron  frame,  used  to  hold  pots  over  the  fire,  stands 
in  the  fireplace.  Near  by,  on  the  floor,  are  two  wooden  boxes,  about 
a  foot  square  and  four  inches  high,  open  at  the  bottom,  and  used  for 
stools.  Against  the  walls  on  the  east  and  south  sides  are  rolled  up 
mattresses  and  blankets,  ready  to  be  spread  out  at  night  on  untanned 
oxhides,  which  lie  upon  the  floor.  In  one  corner  is  a  small  table; 
near  it  a  row  of  four  or  five  shelves,  on  which  are  a  few  American 
dishes,  some  pottery  cooking  vessels,  a  little  coffee,  oatmeal,  corn,  and 
a  few  other  things.  In  the  middle  of  the  west  side  is  the  metate, 
which  every  house  must  have.  It  is  a  large  stone  about  two  and  one- 
half  feet  long  by  one  and  one-half  wide,  and  set  at  an  angle  of  about 
thirty  degrees  with  the  floor.  A  box  is  built  around  it  so  that  none  of 
the  grain  will  be  scattered  as  it  is  being  ground.  The  whole  is  neatly 
plastered  about  with  adobe.  Several  slabs  of  stone  for  grinding  lean 
against  the  wall.  A  gun  and  a  bow  and  arrows  hanging  from  a  peg,  a 
pair  of  deer  antlers  and  some  turkey  wings  on  the  wall,  and  a  few 
blankets  thrown  over  a  pole  suspended  from  the  ceiling,  complete  the 
furnishings  of  this  home.  The  metates  are  used  to  grind  only  a  part 
of  the  grain.  The  process  is  too  laborious.  It  is  much  easier  to  load 
the  grain  on  a  burro,  take  it  to  a  Mexican  mill,  and  pay  a  certain  pro- 
portion of  it  to  have  it  ground. 

Outside  the  houses  in  the  open  court  of  the  pueblo,  and  in  the 


STUDY  OF  THE  PUEBLO  OF  TAOS  :«i 

spaces  between  the  houses,  are  many  conical  ovens  built  of  adobe,  and 
varying  from  three  to  six  feet  in  diameter.  The  Mexicans  of  the  ter- 
ritory use  the  same  sort  of  ovens,  and  it  appears  as  if  the  knowledge 
of  them  came  to  the  Indians  from  the  Mexicans.  The  principal  use 
to  which  they  are  put  today  is  to  bake  wheat  bread,  and  wheat  came 
with  the  Mexicans.  "  No  example  of  the  dome-shaped  oven  of  pre- 
Columbian  origin  has  been  found  among  the  pueblo  ruins,  although  its 
prototype  probably  existed  in  ancient  times,  possibly  in  the  form  of  a 
kiln  for  baking  a  fine  quality  of  pottery  formerly  manufactured. 
However,  the  cooking  pit  alone,  developed  to  the  point  of  the 
pi-gummi  oven  of  Tusayan,  may  have  been  the  stem  upon  which  the 
foreien  idea  was  engrafted."  ' 

Behind  each  of  the  great  houses,  just  outside  the  village  proper, 
are  several  immense  heaps  of  ashes  and  rubbish,  the  accumulation  of 
many  years. 

The  principal  crops  of  Taos  are  corn  and  wheat.  Occasionally  a  \. 
field  of  oats  is  seen,  or  a  few  beans  and  peas  and  melons.  Considerable  ' 
quantities  of  squashes  are  also  raised.  Much  of  the  corn  and  wheat  is 
sold  at  the  stores  three  miles  from  the  pueblo  or  traded  for  meat, 
sugar,  coffee,  syrup,  soap,  cloth,  or  whatever  else  the  Indian  wants  or 
can  buy.  What  game  he  can  get,  deer,  turkeys,  grouse,  rabbits,  and 
doves,  supplements  his  other  supplies,  though  much  less  than  it  once 
did,  when  game  was  plenty  and  methods  of  cultivation  were  much 
more  crude  than  now. 

In  summer  the  work  of  the  men  is,  of  course,  mainly  farming.  But 
the  Indian  farmer  is  not  a  very  hard  worker.  At  certain  times,  in 
harvest  time  for  example,  or  when  he  is  irrigating,  he  has  to  work  hard 
and  steadily,  but  ordinarily  he  works  a  part  of  the  day  and  sits  on  the 
housetop  or  goes  to  town  for  the  rest  of  the  day.  When  spring 
comes  and  planting  time  is  at  hand,  the  land  has  first  to  be  irrigated. 
Two  or  three  days  later  it  is  ready  for  the  plow.  By  the  hour  I  have 
watched  the  planting  of  corn.  Save  for  the  figure  of  the  Indian  him- 
self one  would  not  know  but  that  it  was  an  American  farmer  at  the 
plow.  Indian  ponies,  less  often  oxen,  are  used.  Behind  the  one 
following  the  plow  comes  an  old  man  or  a  boy  dropping  the  kernels 
of  corn  which  the  next  turning  of  the  furrow  will  cover.  After  the 
field  is  planted,  the  oxen  are  hitched  to  a  long  pole  by  rawhide  traces 
fastened  to  the  yoke  and  to  each  end  of  the  pole.  An  Indian  steps 
'  Eighth  Annual  Report,  Bureau  of  Ethnology,  p.  164.     See  illustrations. 


2  2  STUDY  OF  THE  PUEBLO  OF  TAOS 

on  the  pole  and,  holding  on  by  the  tails  of  the  oxen,  rides  around  the 
field  to  level  it  off.  When  the  corn  is  a  few  inches  above  the  trround, 
the  field  is  trenched  for  irrigating.  After  this  there  is,  of  course,  the 
hoeing,  hilling,  and  occasional  irrigating.  If  the  water  is  scarce,  as  it 
is  in  July,  one  has  to  engage  the  use  of  it  several  days  beforehand  and 
has  to  use  it  whenever  it  is  assigned  to  him,  whether  it  be  day  or  night. 
I  have  several  times  known  an  Indian  to  work  in  the  field  irrigating 
all  night  after  having  worked  all  day,  and  sometimes  even  two  nights 
in  succession. 

Modern  American  plows  are  commonly  used.  I  have,  however, 
seen  at  Taos  two  old  home-made  plows.  They  consist  simply  of  a 
long  straight  pole,  another  short  pole  fastened  to  it  at  the  proper  angle, 
well  braced  and  shod  with  a  small  piece  of  iron.  Such  a  plow,  of 
course,  merely  breaks  up  the  soil  and  leaves  a  small  trench  ;  it  does  not 
turn  a  furrow. 

The  harvesting  of  wheat  is  a  most  laborious  task.  It  is  done 
with  a  small  sickle.  A  few  stocks  of  grain  are  grasped  in  the  left 
hand,  cut  off  with  the  sickle,  and  laid  on  the  ground;  then  a  few  more, 
and  so  on.  Where  the  soil  is  poor  and  the  wheat  scattered  and  poorly 
headed,  the  crop  would  seem  to  us  hardly  to  repay  the  labor  expended. 
At  San  Ildefonso,  where  much  of  the  soil  is  sandy,  I  saw  the  Indians 
patiently  harvesting  such  grain.  But  at  Taos  the  wheat  is  vigorous 
and  well-headed,  and  yields  a  good  crop.  The  threshing  is  an  interest- 
ing sight.  A  circle  of  tall  poles  is  set  up.  Then  the  ground  within 
the  circle  and  for  a  space  outside  is  wet  and  packed  hard  by  a  flock 
of  sheep  or  goats.  As  the  Taos  Indians  do  not  keep  sheep  and 
goats,  a  Mexican  is  hired  to  come  with  a  flock  and  drive  them  around 
till  the  plot  is  hard  almost  as  baked  clay.  A  fence  is  then  built  and 
the  harvested  grain  heaped  up  within  the  inclosure.  One  or  two 
men  stand  on  top  of  the  pile  to  pitch  down  the  grain  into  the  circle 
just  outside,  while  others  drive  the  sheep  or  the  goats  around  and 
around  till  the  grain  is  threshed.  Sometimes  horses  are  used,  but 
sheep  or  goats  are  much  preferred.  It  only  remains  then  to  remove  the 
straw  and  sweep  up  the  wheat  and  the  chaff  from  the  hard  floor.  The 
Mexicans  thresh  in  the  same  way.  It  is  from  them  undoubtedly  that 
the  Indian  learned  how  to  thresh  wheat,  as  it  is  from  them  he  learned 
how  to  cultivate  it. 

Besides  farming  the  men  have  occasionally  to  build  a  new  house  or 
to  repair  an  old  one,  to  go  to  the  mill  with  grain,  or  to  do  some  com- 


STUDY  OF  THE  PUEBLO  OF  TAOS  23 

muna)  work.  A  few  of  them  hire  out  to  Americans  or  Mexicans  to 
work  in  the  field,  to  build  a  house,  or  to  do  other  work.  The  pleasantest 
work  which  the  Indian  has  to  do  is  to  go  hunting.  It  is  true  game 
is  not  abundant,  but  sometimes  two  men  will  get  eight  or  nine  deer 
in  a  ten-days'  or  two-weeks'  trip.  They  find  a  double  pleasure  in  the 
deer  hunt.  They  enjoy  being  away  in  the  mountains  free  and  alone, 
perhaps  because  centuries  past  they  led  such  a  life  much  more  than 
now.  And  then,  of  course,  they  get  the  skins  and  the  venison.  The 
skins  they  use  to  make  leggings,  moccasins,  and  sometimes  shirts.  In 
winter  they  have  little  to  do  except  hunt  and  bring  wood  from  the 
mountains.  To  get  wood  with  the  Indian  means,  not  to  cut  down 
trees  and  split  them  up,  but  to  pick  up  small  dry  pieces,  such  as  can 
be  easily  broken  to  a  length  suitable  to  being  made  into  a  pack  for 
a  burro.  This  is  the  life  of  the  male  Indian  —  farming,  hunting, 
house-building,  making  skin  clothing,  bringing  wood,  and  sitting 
around. 

The  work  of  the  woman  is  mainly  in  the  house.  She  cooks,  keeps 
the  house  clean,  does  the  washing,  cares  for  the  children,  and  makes 
her  own  dresses.  She  has  also  to  take  care  of  the  wheat  and  maize 
after  it  has  once  been  harvested.  The  wheat  she  winnows  in  the  most 
primitive  way.  She  then  washes  it  all  in  the  creek  to  get  rid  of  the 
chaff  which  remains  after  winnowing.  This  is  done  by  partially  filling 
a  coarse  basket  made  of  yucca  blades  with  the  wheat.  The  water  is 
allowed  to  run  in  through  the  basket,  and  the  light  chaff  rises  to  the 
surface  and  is  carried  away  by  the  running  water.  The  wheat  is  then 
spread  out  in  the  sun  and  allowed  to  dry,  after  which  it  is  carefully 
picked  over  by  hand  to  find  the  little  pebbles  and  sticks  which  may 
still  be  left.  When  all  this  is  done,  it  is  ready  to  be  put  in  sacks  and 
loaded  on  a  burro  to  be  taken  to  the  mill.  Sometimes  one  sees  a 
woman  driving  the  burros  to  the  mill,  but  the  men  usually  go.  The 
women  do  not  work  in  the  fields  except  occasionally  hoeing  the  corn, 
and  this  seems  to  be  because  they  enjoy  it  rather  than  because  it  is  at  all 
necessary.  A  few  women,  however,  widows  and  unmarried  women, 
carry  on  the  lighter  work  of  farming  quite  regularly.  The  care  of 
children,  except  when  they  are  very  young,  is  not  great.  They  are 
obedient  and  deferential  to  parents,  grandparents,  and  even  to  uncles 
and  aunts.  The  little  girls,  even  when  not  more  than  seven  or  eight 
years  old,  take  care  of  the  younger  children,  while  the  parents  are  at 
work. 


2  4  STUDY  OF  THE  PUEBLO  OF  TAOS 

At  Taos  today  there  is  no  spinning  or  weaving  done.  Some  pot- 
tery is  made,  but  it  is  of  poor  quality  and  is  made  only  by  a  few  old 
women  and  poor  families.'  The  best  pottery  they  get  from  the  Tehua 
pueblos  in  exchange  for  wheat.  The  people  say  they  used  to  make  fine 
decorated  ware,  having  learned  from  the  Zuiii. 

One  of  the  most  curious,  and  at  the  same  time  most  characteristic, 
features  of  an  Indian  pueblo  is  its  kivas,  or  estufas,  as  they  are  more 
commonly  called.  At  Taos  they  are  circular  structures,  built  almost 
wholly  underground,  and  entered  by  a  single  opening  in  the  roof. 
There  is  no  other  opening  in  the  room,  save  a  small  hole  at  one  side 
to  secure  a  draft  for  the  fire.  These  kivas  have  come  to  be  used  as 
places  for  holding  the  civil,  religious,  and  secret  ceremonies  of  the 
tribe,  but  they  were  originally  the  sleeping  and  lounging  places  of  the 
/  men,  and  could  not  be  entered  by  the  women  except  to  carry  food  to 
their  husbands,  sons,  and  brothers.^ 

At  most  of  the  ruined  towns  and  at  most  of  the  existing  pueblos, 
the  kivas  were  nearly  or  entirely  underground,  and  they  are  usually 
circular.  Eight  ruined  towns  mentioned  by  General  Simpson  all  had 
circular  kivas,  the  number  at  the  different  towns  varying  from  one  to 
seven. ^  At  Santa  Clara  today  one,  at  least,  of  the  kivas  is  above  ground 
and  is  square.  I  do  not  know  how  many  others  there  may  be  nor 
what  their  form  and  position  are.  At  Picuris  and  at  Nambe  they  may 
also  be  seen  above  ground,  but  round.  So  there  is  now  considerable 
variation.  There  is,  of  course,  variation  in  size,  too,  but  they  are  usu- 
ally high  enough  so  that  one  can  stand  erect,  and  about  twenty  feet  in 
diameter. 

For  the  subterranean  position  of  these  rooms  Mr.  Gushing  has 
offered  the  following  explanation:''  when  the  ancestors  of  these 
people  were  living  in  the  caves  and  cliffs,  the  women  built  the  houses 
and  used  them  for  the  protection  of  themselves  and  their  children.  As 

'  Mr.  Stevenson  says  :  "The  Pueblo  tribes  of  New  Mexico  and  Arizona,  with  rare 
exceptions,  manufacture  earthenware  vessels  for  domestic  use.  The  Pueblo  of  Taos 
may  be  mentioned  as  one  of  these  exceptions."  (Illustrated  catalogue  of  the  collec- 
tions obtained  from  the  Indians  of  New  Mexico  and  Arizona  in  1879.  Second 
Annual  Report,  Bureau  of  Ethnology,  p.  327.)     This  certainly  is  not  true  today. 

'^Papers  Arch.  Inst,  of  Avier.,  Ill,  p.  143  ;    Voyage  de  Cibola,  p.  170. 

.    3 "Journal  of   a   Military   Reconnaissance   from  Santa  Fe,  N.  M.,  to  the  Navajo 
Country,"  Sen.  Exec.  Doc.  64,  31st  Cong.,  1850,  ist  Session,  Vol.  XIV,  pp.  55  et  seq. 

^  "  Outlines  of  Zuiii  Creation  Myths,"  Thirteenth  Annual  Report,  Bureau  of  Ethnol- 
ogy. PP-  344  et  seq. 


KIVA    AT   TAOS    WITH    PALISADE    AROrXD    ENTKAN'CE 


KIVAS    AT   TAOS   WITH    SQUARE    WALL   AROIWD    ENTRANCES 


STUDY  OF  THE  PUEBLO  OF  TAOS  25 

the  level  space  was  small,  the  men  built  sleeping  and  lounging  places 
for  themselves  in  the  outer  part  of  the  cave,  where  the  floor  began  to 
slope  to  the  valley  below.  The  walls  were  built  only  high  enough  to 
bring  the  roof  up  to  a  level  with  the  cave  floor.  Thus  the  double  pur- 
pose was  accomplished  of  providing  a  common  room  for  the  men  and 
of  increasing  the  floor  space  in  the  caves.  When  the  people  left  their 
cliff  houses  and  came  to  live  in  the  valleys,  they  continued  to  build 
their  houses  and  kivas  in  the  same  old  way,  though  the  necessity  for  so 
doing  had  passed.  The  semicircular  form  of  the  villages  to  be  seen  in 
several  of  the  ruined  towns  has  not  persisted  in  any  of  the  existing 
pueblos,  but  the  kivas  are  still  usually  subterranean  or  partially  so.  At 
the  time  of  the  coming  of  the  Spaniards  the  youths  and  men  slept  in 
the  kivas  and  spent  only  a  part  of  the  day  time  with  their  mothers, 
wives,  and  children.  The  Spaniards  taught  them  to  live  in  families, 
and  one  of  the  uses  of  the  kivas  was  gone.  They  continue  to  be  used 
on  occasions  of  dances  and  for  council  meetings  of  the  chiefs  and 
other  important  gatherings  of  the  men.  Yet  I  have  night  after  night 
seen  the  governor  at  Taos  meeting  his  council  in  a  room  which  he 
himself  owned,  and  set  apart  for  the  purpose  during  the  year  he  was 
governor.  It  may  be  that  this  is  done  because  it  is  more  convenient, 
or  it  may  be  that  the  governor  and  his  council,  since  thev  have  resulted 
from  Spanish  influence,  are  of  less  dignity  and  so  meet  in  a  less  cere- 
monious way. 

Another  interesting  thing  about  the  kivas  is  their  location.  In  the 
ruined  pueblos,  and  to  some  extent  in  the  modern  ones,  they  are 
located  outside  the  main  mass  of  rooms,  or  at  least  outside  of  what  con- 
stituted the  original  village.  In  many  of  the  present  tawns  they  are 
found  also  in  the  open  courts,  or  even  within  the  great  houses  them- 
selves. Of  course,  it  may  be  that  in  these  cases,  too,  the  village  has 
grown  around  the  kivas,  which  were  once  on  the  edge  of  the  town. 

At  Taos  there  are  seven  kivas,  four  on  the  south  side  of  the  creek, 
and  three  on  the  north  side.  Three  of  those  on  the  south  side  are 
outside  the  old  town  wall  and  a  few  rods  away  from  it.  The  other  one 
and  the  three  on  the  north  side  are  within  the  wall.  Bandelier  says  of 
the  kivas  at  Taos  that  they  are  "completely  subterraneous.'"  This  is 
not  today  strictly  true.  The  side  walls  of  several  of  them  can  be  seen 
for  about  a  foot  from  the  top.  It  may  be  that  they  were  once  entirely 
subterraneous  and  that  the  earth  has  worn  away  from  them,  though, 

'  Papers  Arch.  Inst,  of  Amer.,  Ill,  p.  268. 


UNIVERSITY     ; 

or  J 

■^M-ISS^  STUDY  OF  THE  PUEBLO  OF  TAOS 

from  the  height  of  the  roofs  and  from  the  general  level  of  the  ground 
around,  I  am  led  to  think  the  earth  had  been  banked  up  around  them 
to  give  them  the  appearance  of  being  wholly  underground.  This 
holds  true  more  particularly  of  the  kivas  within  the  town  wall. 

It  has  occurred  to  me  that  these  kivas  in  the  old  area  of  the  town 
may  be  older  than  the  three  outside.  There  are  two  points  which  sug- 
gest this.  In  the  first  place,  one  would  not  expect  that  the  sleeping 
rooms  for  men  and  youths  would  be  built  outside  the  inclosing  wall 
and  so  unnecessarily  exposed  to  danger  of  attack.  It  seems  much 
more  likely  that  they  would  be  located  near  the  edge  of  the  town,  in 
the  most  dangerous  place,  but  not  needlessly  exposed.  This  is  the 
position  of  the  four  kivas  within  the  inclosing  wall.  In  the  second 
place,  the  construction  of  the  kivas  inside  the  wall  differs  in  one  par- 
ticular, at  least,  from  that  of  those  outside.  The  roofs  of  all  of  them 
are  flat,  with  the  opening  in  the  center.  But  those  within  the  old  town 
limits  have  this  opening  surrounded  by  a  circular  palisade  of  wood 
about  seven  or  eight  feet  high.  There  is  a  narrow  gap  permitting  one 
to  pass  inside  the  palisade.  The  kivas  outside  the  town  wall  have  the 
opening  surrounded  by  a  wall  of  adobe,  a  narrow  gap  being  left  as  in 
the  case  of  the  others.  This  wall  is  only  about  two  feet  high,  and  the 
space  inclosed,  though  of  about  the  same  size  as  that  inclosed  by  the 
palisades,  is  square.  I  inquired  as  to  the  reason  for  this  difference  of 
construction,  but  was  unable  to  find  out  anything  about  it. 

I  have  been  in  but  one  of  the  kivas  at  Taos.  One  descends  by  a 
ladder,  the  two  poles  of  which  extend  high  up  into  the  air.  The  room 
is  just  high  enough  for  one  to  stand  erect,  and  the  ceiling  is  covered 
with  soot  from  the  fire  which  is  lighted  in  the  fire-pit  in  the  center  of 
the  room  on  the  occasion  of  any  ceremony.  One  or  two  untanned  ox 
hides  lie  on  the  floor,  and  a  big  drum,  the  skin  of  which  is  buffalo  hide. 
I  think  the  other  kivas  do  not  differ  essentially  from  this  one,  save  in 
the  external  details  already  mentioned. 

An  interesting  illustration  of  the  old-time  use  of  the  kivas  for  men 
and  youths  only  came  to  my  notice.  A  party  of  Taos  men  went  with 
a  small  company  of  Utes  to  Indian  Territory.  On  the  return,  when 
within  a  ride  of  a  day  or  two  of  the  pueblo,  two  men  were  sent  ahead  to 
notify  the  people  of  their  coming.  But  instead  of  coming  into  the 
town  they  told  the  first  person  whom  they  saw  to  tell  the  war  captain 
that  they  had  come,  and  went  themselves  into  a  kiva.  The  war  cap- 
tain  then    notified   the   men   of  the   village,  and  as  many  of  them  as 


STUDY  OF  THE  PUEBLO  OF  TAOS  27 

wanted  to  went  to  the  kiva  where  the  messengers  were.  The  messen- 
gers were  given  cigarettes  to  smoke  and  told  to  tell  only  the  truth. 
They  then  told  the  story  of  the  trip  from  the  time  of  leaving  the  pueblo 
till  they  came  back.  But  the  women  could  not  come  to  hear  the 
account,  but  must  hear  about  it  afterwards.  This,  the  people  say,  is 
an  old  custom,  and  so  it  undoubtedly  is.  It  seems  as  if  the  explana- 
tion might  be  found  in  this  :  many  years  ago,  when  the  kivas  were  the 
sleeping  places  of  the  men,  it  was  natural  enough  that  the  men  should 
go  there  on  their  return  from  a  trip.  Now,  though  the  conditions 
have  changed,  the  old  custom  is  kept  up. 

Of  the  number  of  kivas  in  a  pueblo  Mr.  Bandelier  says  :  "It  is 
probable  that,  as  in  Mexico,  there  were  in  each  pueblo  as  many  estufas 
as  there  were  clans."'  This  may  have  been  the  case.  It  will  not  be 
easy  to  learn  definitely,  as  some  of  the  clans  have  disappeared,  and  cer- 
tain of  the  kivas  may  have  fallen  to  ruins  and  all  trace  of  them  been 
lost.  The  number  of  kivas  at  Taos  at  present  does  not  agree  with  the 
number  of  clans  which  Bandelier  says  existed  there.  He  says  there 
were  thirteen  gentes,  and  gives  the  names  of  six.  If  these  kivas  were 
built  at  different  times,  and  if  there  is  any  connection  between  the 
number  of  kivas  and  the  number  of  clans,  we  seem  to  have  evidence 
of  an  increase  at  some  time  in  the  number  of  the  Taos  gentes.  This 
might  easily  be  from  division  of  gentes.  It  may  be,  too,  that  some- 
where within  the  great  houses  are  other  kivas  which  the  outsider  knows 
nothing  of. 

Speaking  of  Taos,  Mr.  Poore  says,  in  one  of  the  census  bulletins  : 
"This  is  the  most  independent  of  the  Pueblo  tribes  both  in  material 
condition  and  in  its  attitude  toward  strangers."^  This  freedom  from 
outside  influence  is  seen  in  the  dress  of  the  people.  In  many  of  the 
pueblos  one  frequently  sees  men  wearing  old  trousers,  vests,  and  hats, 
and  American  shoes.  At  Taos  you  may  see  one  or  two  men  wearing 
shoes,  but  you  will  not  see  old  American  clothes  worn.  Their  clothes 
are  made  usually  of  American  cloth,  but,  excepting  the  shirts  worn  by 
the  men,  are  made  in  their  own  style. 

The  dress  of  the  men  consists  of  a  common,  American-made,  colored 
shirt,  cotton  or  woolen,  according  to  the  time  of  year;  a  pair  of  leg- 
gings made  of  cheap  worsted   goods,  or  of  blue  or  white  drilling  or 

^Papers  Arch.  Inst,  of  Amer.,  III.,  p.  144. 

^"Eleventh  Census  of  U.S.,  Extra  Census  Bulletin,"  Moqid  Pueblo  Indians  oj 
Arizona  and  Pueblo  Indians  of  N'etv  Mexico,  p.  100. 


28  STUVY  OF  THE  PUEBLO  OF  TAOS 

duck.  Each  of  these  leggings  is  made  of  a  single  piece  of  cloth,  sewed 
together  so  that  it  will  fit  close  to  the  leg  and  leave  the  edges  of  the 
cloth  free  to  a  length  varying  from  one  inch  to  six  inches,  or  even 
more.  The  leggings  come  about  half  way  up  the  thigh  and  are  held 
up  by  a  string  which  is  attached  to  a  cord  passing  around  the  waist. 
This  same  cord  also  supports  the  breech-clout,  or  G-string,  as  it  is 
more  commonly  called  in  New  Mexico.  This  is  simple  a  strip  of  cot- 
ton cloth  about  six  inches  wide  and  varying  in  length.  Sometimes  it 
is  long  enough  to  touch  the  ground,  both  in  front  and  behind.  The 
moccasins,  which  are  the  common  Indian  moccasins,  usually  undeco- 
rated  except  with  diamond  dyes,  are  made  either  of  buckskin  or  of 
leather  taken  from  an  old  pair  of  American  boots.  The  blanket  which 
is  worn  about  the  loins  or  carried  thrown  over  the  shoulder  is  of 
American  make  usually.  Occasionally  leggings  of  buckskin  are  worn, 
and  still  more  rarely  a  buckskin  shirt.  They  are  valued  highly  and 
are  very  durable,  but  since  deer  have  become  so  scarce  are  not  at  all 
common.  A  hat  is  almost  never  worn  by  a  Taos  Indian.  My  friend, 
when  we  were  going  off  for  a  week  together,  would  give  me  his  hat  to 
carry  till  we  were  some  distance  away  from  the  village,  and  then  he 
would  put  it  on.  I  suppose  he  wished  to  avoid  the  criticisms  of  the 
other  men. 

The  man's  dress  is  inexpensive,  simple,  and  comfortable.  That  of 
the  woman  is  equally  so.  At  Taos  women's  dresses  are  made  entirely  of 
American  goods.  The  one  garment  which  has  sleeves  is  a  loose  under- 
garment of  white  cotton  cloth  or  some  light  print  made  like  a  night 
gown.  It  is  plain,  except  for  a  little  ruffle  about  the  neck  and  wrists.  Of 
these  garments  the  women  often  have  but  one,  so  that,  when  it  has  to  be 
washed,  she  must  go  partly  dressed.  If  it  happens  to  be  stolen,  as  was 
that  of  one  woman  whom  I  knew,  she  must  go  without  till  she  can 
make  another.  Their  other  dresses,  of  which  they  have  many,  are 
very  simple,  and  are  made  of  light  and  dark  prints.  Two  strips  of 
cloth,  long  enough  to  make  the  dress  large  enough  around,  are  sewed 
together.  The  ends  of  this  wide  piece,  except  about  one  quarter  of  its 
length  at  the  top,  is  then  sewed  together.  About  three  inches  of  the 
upper  end,  near  the  open  side,  are  sewed  together,  and  the  dress  is  done, 
except  sometimes  for  a  small  worsted  tassel  at  the  lower  end  of  the 
side  seam.  The  little  place  at  the  upper  end  which  is  sewed  together 
rests  upon  the  right  shoulder  and  holds  up  the  upper  part  of  the 
dress.     The  right  arm  passes  through  on  one  side  of  this  little  seam 


STUDY  OF  THE  PUEBLO  OF  TAOS  29 

and  the  head  and  left  shoulder  on  the  other.  This,  of  course,  leaves  the 
right  arm  and  left  shoulder  and  arm  uncovered,  except  by  the  under- 
garment.-   Several  of  these  outer  garments  are  worn  at  the  same  time. 

All  the  women's  dresses  are  of  such  a  length  that,  if  worn  loose, 
they  would  nearly  reach  the  ground,  but  they  are  held  up  about  the 
waist  by  a  belt  so  that  they  come  just  below  the  knees.  The  mak- 
ing of  these  belts  is  a  native  Indian  industry,  though  they  are  now 
made  at  only  a  few  pueblos.  At  Tesuque  there  are  one  or  two  men 
who  still  make  them,  but  most  of  them  seem  to  come  from  Jemez  and 
other  pueblos  farther  west.  The  weaving  is  close  and  firm,  and  the  belts 
are  very  durable.  The  patterns  of  many  of  them  are  very  pretty,  red, 
green,  and  dark  blue  colors  predominating. 

The  moccasins  of  the  women  are  made  of  buckskin,  sometimes  of 
goatskin,  and  are  long  enough  to  come  up  just  below  the  knee,  where 
they  are  tied  about  the  leg.  The  sole  is  of  rawhide  like  those  of  the 
men's  moccasins.  A  wash  of  white  earth,  easily  renewed  when  neces- 
sary, is  rubbed  over  the  buckskin.  The  making  of  the  moccasins  is  a 
part  of  the  work  of  the  husbands  and  fathers,  who  take  pride  in  having 
their  wives  and  daughters  provided  with  strong,  well-made  pairs. 
These  moccasins  give  to  the  women  a  very  neat  and  rather  picturesque 
appearance.  The  little  girls  wear  the  same  sort  of  moccasins,  but  their 
dresses  are  more  simple.  When  outdoors  the  women  usually  wear  a 
shawl  over  the  head.     This  is  of  American  manufacture. 

On  dance  days  and  other  festival  occasions  the  women  wear  much 
finer  dresses  than  those  mentioned  above.  These  holiday  dresses  are 
of  silk  and  velvet,  and  in  place  of  a  shawl  a  sort  of  cape  of  silk  is  worn 
hanging  from  the  shoulders.  Many  have  a  "best  pair"  of  moccasins, 
too.  They  are  of  buckskin,  but  are  made  differently  from  those  worn 
every  day,  consisting  of  two  pieces  to  each  moccasin.  One  is  a  very 
low  moccasin  coming  up  just  above  the  ankle;  the  other  piece  is  a 
long  strip  of  buckskin  which  is  wound  about  the  leg  up  to  the  knee. 
They  look  much  firmer  and  smoother  than  the  ordinary  moccasins. 
One"  or  two  silver  rings,  a  bracelet  or  two,  and  a  pair  of  earrings  will 
make  up  the  woman's  attire. 

Before  the  introduction  of  American  cloths  the  women  used  to 
dress  partly  in  skins  and  partly  in  cloth  brought  from  the  Moqui  towns 
and  traded  to  the  Taos  people.  These  Moqui  cloths  are  still  made 
and  may  be  seen  at  some  of  the  pueblos  in  the  Rio  Grande  valley, 
though  they  are  no  longer  in  use  at  Taos. 


/ 


30  STUDY  OF  THE  PUEBLO  OF  TAOS 

The  women  bang  their  hair  and  let  it  fall  down  over  their  eyes  or 
push  it  a  little  to  one  side.  Behind,  when  hastily  done  up,  it  is  in  a 
double  T-shaped  knot,  bound  with  a  mass  of  bright-colored  woolen 
yarn.  When  more  care  is  given  to  it,  it  is  arranged  in  two  double  T- 
shaped  knots,  one  on  either  side  of  the  head  just  behind  the  ears,  and 
tied  with  yarn.  A  pad  made  of  combings  of  their  own  hair  is  used  as  a 
body  for  the  knots  when  two  are  made.  The  men  braid  their  hair  in 
two  braids  and  let  it  hang  on  either  side  of  the  head  in  front  of  the 
shoulders.  Yarn,  often  bright-colored,  is  braided  in  and  tied  at  the 
ends. 

I  was  not  able  to  be  at  Taos  on  the  great  annual  holiday,  the  day 
of  the  patron  saint,  San  Geronimo,  the  30th  of  September.  It  was  so 
often  referred  to,  however,  that  I  learned  something  about  it.  One  of 
the  great  features  of  the  day  is  the  foot  race.  It  is  a  relay  race,  the 
runners  starting  at  opposite  ends  of  the  course  and  each  coming  back 
to  the  starting  point,  when  another  runner  on  each  side  starts  at  once. 
The  race  is  kept  up  until  a  runner  on  one  side  has  overtaken  one  on 
the  other,  one  side  having  thus  covered  the  length  of  the  race  course 
more  than  the  other. 

One  can  readily  see  that  if  the  sides  are  evenly  matched  the  race  is 
likely  to  be  a  long,  exhausting  one,  especially  when  run  under  the  hot 
New  Mexican  sun. 

Only  a  breech-clout  and  one  or  two  ornamental  pieces  of  fur  or 
cloth  are  worn.  The  body  is,  however,  rubbed  with  a  wash  of  white 
clay,  which  gives  it  a  peculiar  mottled  appearance. 

This  race  is  run  at  Picuris  just  as  it  is  at  Taos,  and  it  was  at  the 
former  pueblo  that  I  saw  it.  There  the  grown  men  were  so  few  that 
some  of  the  runners  on  each  side  were  mere  boys.  After  running  for 
several  times  they  came  in  to  the  goal  so  nearly  exhausted  as  to  be 
hardly  able  to  run  at  all. 

Not  merely  on  San  Geronimo  day,  but  on  every  saint's  day,  there  is 
a  dance.  Today  the  people  do  not  enjoy  this  dancing  as  they  once 
did.  Some  men,  when  ordered  by  the  war  captain  to  dance,  send  their 
wives  instead,  and  thus  escape  the  punishment  which  would  otherwise 
follow  their  failure  to  appear.  The  dances  have  been  somewhat  affected 
superficially  by  Christian  influence,  but  it  is  probable  that  within  the 
kivas,  particularly  in  winter,  the  people  dance  in  the  old-time  vvay, 
even  though  the  faith  of  many  in  the  importance  of  it  all  be  somewhat 
shaken. 


STUDY  OF  THE  PUEBLO  OF  TAOS  31 

As  in  all  the  other" pueblos,  so  at  Taos,  the  civil  organization  has 
undergone  some  changes  during  the  last  three  hundred  years.  Of 
course,  it  is  bound  up  with  the  esoteric  and  religious  life  of  the  people. 

An  important  and  curious  position  is  that  of  cacique,  an  officer 
whose  duties  have  to  do  for  the  part  most  with  secret  and  religious  cere- 
monials. John  Ward  says,  in  speaking  of  the  pueblos  of  New  Mexico  : 
"The  cacique  evidently  has  more  to  do  with  the  administration  of 
ancient  rites  than  with  any  other  business.  The  high  regard,  mingled 
with  respect  and  affection,  which  is  invariably  shown  him  places  him 
more  in  the  position  of  an  elder  than  any  other  we  think  of."'  I  am 
inclined  to  think  the  influence  of  the  cacique  has  quite  noticeably 
diminished  during  the  last  few  years.  This  certainly  seems  to  be  the 
case  at  Taos.  The  present  cacique  is  a  middle-aged  man,  who  secured 
the  office,  partly  through  the  influence  of  Americans  in  the  vicinity,  at 
the  death  of  the  former  cacique  a  few  years  ago.  There  was  another 
man  whom  many  of  the  people  favored,  and  this  disaffected  party  now 
say  of  the  cacique  that  they  "  do  not  care  for  him."  They  have,  too,  no 
very  kind  words  for  those  who  were  influential  in  giving  him  his 
office.  The  office  is  for  life,  but  does  not  seem  to  be  hereditary. 
Bandelier  says  :  "The  caciqueship  maybe  —  I  am  not  yet  positive  — 
hereditary  in  a  certain  gens ;  but  if  this  is  the  case,  I  hold  it  to  be  so 
only  among  the  Tehuas,  and  not  among  the  Queres."^  From  the  fact 
that  there  were  at  Taos  two  parties  representing  candidates  for  the 
caciqueship  one  may  infer  that  today  at  least  there  is  no  strict  rule  of 
inheritance  of  the  office,  though,  of  course,  it  may  be  that  among  the 
Tiguas,  to  whom  the  Taos  people  belong,  it  was  hereditary  in  a  gens, 
as  is  suggested  it  was  among  the  Tehuas.  From  actual  investigation  I 
am  unable  to  say  what  the  duties  of  the  cacique  are,  except  the  small 
part  which  he  plays  in  the  election  of  governor  and  war  captain  ;  this 
will  be  mentioned  later.  The  impression  prevails  among  the  white 
people  of  the  vicinity  that  the  cacique  is  the  keeper  of  the  traditional, 
mythical,  and  sacred  lore  of  the  tribe.  In  fact,  it  was  because  it  was 
thought  the  present  officer  would  be  more  communicative  in  these 
matters  that  he  was  supported  for  the  position  by  the  Americans. 

Mr.  Bandelier  further  says,^  in  speaking  of  the  Oueres,  that  in 
former  times,  and  often  today,  a  piece  of  land  was  tilled  bv  the  com- 

'  "  Eleventh  Census  of  the  U.  S.,  Extra  Census  Bulletin,"  Moqui  Pueblo  Itidians 
of  Arizona  and  Pueblo  Indians  of  New  Mexico,  p.  81. 

'^  Papers  Arch.  Inst,  of  Atner.,  Ill,  p.  280,  ^Ibid.,  Ill,  p.  281. 


32  STUDY  OF  THE  PUEBLO  OF  TAOS 

munity  for  the  cacique.  Besides  he  was  exempt  from  communal  work. 
While  I  am  not  certain,  I  very  much  doubt  if  this  is  now  true  at  Taos, 
whether  it  may  once  have  been  or  not.  One  fact  which  I  learned 
points  to  the  conclusion  that  at  one  time  a  certain  amount  of  com- 
munal work  was  done  for  the  cacique  and  suggests  what  his  former 
position  may  have  been.  At  the  top  of  the  great  house  on  the  south 
side  was  a  room  or  two  which  belonged  to  an  old  woman.  They  fell 
to  ruins  and  were  rebuilt  by  the  community  and  given  to  the  cacique  to 
occupy.  It  is  there  he  is  living  today,  but  the  rooms  in  all  probability 
remain  the  property  of  the  community.' 

The  part  of  the  government  of  the  pueblo  with  which  an  outsider 
first  comes  into  contact  is  the  governor.  He  is  elected  annually  and 
takes  office  on  the  first  day  of  January.  Although  the  Indians  main- 
tain that  this  was  the  custom  before  the  coming  of  the  Spaniards,  there 
can  be  no  doubt  that  it  is  a  change  brought  about  by  Spanish  influence. 
The  governor  is  elected  by  the  chiefs  and  is  the  executive  officer  of 
the  village.  His  business  is  to  settle  quarrels  which  arise  between 
members  of  the  tribe  themselves,  or  between  members  of  the  tribe  and 
outsiders,  to  see  that  the  irrigating  ditches  are  kept  in  repair,  and  to 
assign  times  to  the  men  for  the  use  of  the  water  in  irrigating.  As  the 
Mexicans  have  the  use  of  the  water  of  the  creek  three  days  in  the  week, 
they  may  often  be  seen  at  the  governor's  house  talking  with  him  about 
some  misunderstanding  which  has  arisen. 

The  governor,  with  nine  officers  who  are  chosen  to  assist  him,  has 
frequent  meetings,  often  many  nights  in  succession,  to  talk  over  mat- 
ters. When  any  announcement  is  to  be  made  to  the  people,  he  steps 
out  on  the  roof  of  his  own  house,  or  climbs  to  some  high  place  on  one 
of  the  great  houses,  and  gives  his  message  in  a  voice  loud  enough  to 
be  heard  over  the  greater  part  of  the  village.  It  is  this  custom  which 
has  led  some  to  speak  of  the  "town-crier,"^  and  there  is  some  reason  for 
the  comparison.  Sometimes  the  announcement  is  that  they  must  send 
their  children  to  school;  again,  that  they  must  come  out  in  the  morn- 
ing and  plant  the  corn  in  the  priest's  field,  or,  that  they  must  not  turn 

'  On  cacique  see  further,  Papers  A7-ch.  Inst,  of  Anter.,  Ill,  jjp.  276-84. 

^"U.  S.  Geographical  Survey  West  of  lOOth  Meridian,"  VII,  Arc/urology,  p.  483: 
"  The  town-crier  goes  out  every  morning  at  seven  o'clock  to  chant  this  strain  of  words, 
repeating  it  frequently,  and  another  song  is  sung  by  him  in  the  evening  to  close  the 
day's  woik."  It  is  doubtful  if  these  announcements  which  are  so  frequently  made, 
are  in  many  cases  to  summon  the  people  to  work  or  to  announce  the  close  of  the  day's 
labor. 


READY    FOR   THE    RELAY    RACE,    SAN    GERONIMO    DAY,  TAOS 


GROUr  OF  TAOS   INDIANS 


OF  THB 

UNIVERSITY 

s£iCALIFOR^ 


STUDY  OF  THE  PUEBLO  OF  TAOS  33 

all  the  water  from  the  creek  into  the  irrigation  ditches  above  the 
pueblo,  as  the  women  are  then  obliged  to  go  too  far  for  water  for 
household  uses. 

A  man  may  be  governor  for  several  years.  One  old  chief,  who 
seems  to  be  held  in  high  esteem,  and  is  one  of  the  principal  chiefs  of 
the  village,  has  been  governor  six  or  seven  years,  not,  however,  con- 
tinuously. By  virtue  of  having  once  held  the  office  a  man  becomes  a 
chief,  at  first  one  of  the  lesser  chiefs,  but  he  has  a  voice  in  the  election 
of  the  succeeding  governors. 

The  war  captain,  whose  office  seems  to  be  second  in  importance 
to  that  of  the  governor,  is  also  elected  by  the  chiefs.  He  has  a  lieu- 
tenant and  nine  officers,  making  a  board  of  twelve  in  all.  He  has 
charge  of  the  dances  which  occur  on  festival  days,  and,  assisted  by  his 
officers,  gives  orders  as  to  who  shall  dance  ;  if  his  orders  are  not 
obeyed,  the  offender  is  arrested  by  the  one  of  the  officers  whose  special 
duty  it  is,  and  given  a  public  whipping.  The  war  captain  also  has 
charge  of  the  communal  meadow,  and  appoints  each  week  those  v/ho 
are  to  watch  the  stock  there  and  keep  them  from  getting  into  the  grain 
fields.  Only  those  who  have  stock,  cattle,  horses,  or  burros,  in  the 
meadow  are  appointed  to  this  duty.  If  some  animal  does  get  out  into 
a  cultivated  field,  it  is  the  war  captain's  duty  to  find  out  whose  it  is, 
and  to  settle  the  fine  to  be  paid  by  its  owner  to  the  owner  of  the  field. 
Further,  he  has  to  do  with  trips  which  are  sometimes  made  to  some 
distant  place,  such  as  the  trip  to  Indian  Territory,  mentioned  above. 
He  decides  whether  the  people  shall  go,  and  it  is  to  him  they  report 
on  their  return.  His  title,  war  captain,  suggests  what  his  duties  may 
have  been  at  one  time.  In  all  probability  in  his  hands  lay  the  defense 
of  the  town,  but  as  there  is  no  longer  any  occasion  for  defense,  his 
office  appears  to  be  of  less  importance  than  it  once  was. 

In  holding  these  various  offices  certain  rules  are  observed.  When 
one  is  an  officer  of  the  war  captain  -for  the  first  time,  he  is  the  lowest 
officer;  the  second  time  he  is  next  to  the  lowest,  and  so  on.  After 
being  an  officer  of  the  war  captain  one  must  wait  one  year  before  he 
can  be  an  officer  of  the  governor. 

The  important  men  of  the  town  are  the  chiefs,  their  influence  being 
much  greater  than  that  of  the  governor,  unless,  of  course,  the  governor 
himself  happens  to  be  one  of  the  principal  chiefs.  The  importance  of 
the  chief  appears  to  depend  in  part  on  the  number  of  times  he  has 
been  governor.     Three  chiefs,  whose  influence  is  greater  than  that  of 


34  STUDY  OF  THE  PUEBLO  OF  TAOS 

the  others,  play  an  important  part  in  the  election  of  the  village  officers. 
Two  men  are  proposed  by  them  for  governor,  and  the  other  chiefs 
vote  for  the  one  of  the  two  whom  they  prefer.  The  cacique  counts  the 
votes.  If  this  really  be  the  only  part  which  the  cacique  plays  in  the 
election,  it  is  insignificant  enough.  Bandelier  says  that  among  the 
Oueres  he  chooses  both  the  governor  and  the  war  captain,'  and  I  sus- 
pect that  the  fact  that  my  informant  at  Taos  belonged  to  the  party 
which  was  opposed  to  the  present  cacique  led  him  to  minimize  his 
importance  as  much  as  possible. 

After  the  selection  of  the  governor,  the  war  captain  is  chosen  in 
the  same  way.  The  war  captain's  lieutenant  is  chosen  from  two  of  his 
officers,  designated  by  the  three  chiefs.  The  other  officers,  those  of 
the  governor  and  of  the  war  captain,  are  chosen  by  all  the  chiefs 
together.  Besides  these  duties,  the  chiefs  have  in  their  hands  the 
most  important  business  of  the  tribe.  Any  trouble  concerning  the 
land  which  sometimes  arises  with  the  Mexicans,  or  any  business  con- 
nected with  the  United  States  government,  that  is,  "big  business,"  has 
to  be  dealt  with  by  the  council  of  chiefs.  This  statement  concerning 
the  officers  and  the  chiefs  was  given  to  me  by  the  son  of  one  of  the 
three  principal  chiefs. 

Of  the  clans  at  Taos  I  was  able  to  learn  scarcely  anything.  I 
inquired  several  times  of  my  friend  there,  but  he  always  answered  that 
he  did  not  know  about  any  such  thing.  Later  he  told  me  that  he  had 
asked  his  father,  and  his  father  had  said  to  him:  "You  are  around 
with  the  chiefs  all  the  time  and  would  hear  about  such  things  if  we  had 
them."  I  do  not  know  whether  he  was  absolutely  ignorant  of  the 
gens  or  was  simply  unwilling  to  tell.  He  did,  however,  say  that  many 
years  ago  the  Taos  people  numbered  about  i,ooo.  Part  of  them  were 
living  about  one-eighth  of  a  mile  from  the  present  pueblo,  and  were 
known  as  ha-chi-ti-pipl,  or  stone-axe  people.  They  did  not  enjoy 
farming  and  so  left  the  remainder  of  the  people  where  they  now  are, 
and  themselves  journeyed  away  to  the  east.  Two  or  three  generations 
ago,  when  a  party  of  Taos  men  were  on  a  hunting  trip  250  miles  to 
the  east,  they  came  across  some  people  who  talked  their  language. 
They  did  not  see  the  place  where  these  people  lived.  It  may  be  that 
these  were  the  stone-axe  people.  Those  now  living  at  Taos  call  them- 
selves i-Ta-i-na-ma,  or  willow  people.  This  term  appears  to  apply  to 
all  those   in   the  pueblo,  and  not  to  any  one  division  of  them.     Of 

'^Papers  Arch.  Inst,  of  Atiier.,  Ill,  pp.  2S3  and  285. 


STUDY  OF  THE  PUEBLO  OF  TAOS  35 

course,  it  may  be  that  one  clan  has  absorbed  the  others,  or  that  all  but 
one  have  died  out  or  wandered  away,  so  that  but  one  of  the  original 
number  remains  today.  But  it  seems  far  more  likely  that  the  people 
are  exceedingly  jealous  in  regard  to  this  matter,  and  will  not  speak  of 
it  to  an  outsider  till  he  has  fully  gained  their  confidence. 

Bandelier  says'  there  were  thirteen  gentes  at  Taos;  of  these  he 
names  the  following  six:  the  bead,  water,  axe,  feather,  sun,  and  knife 
clans,  but  he  plainly  says  that  he  cannot  guarantee  the  accuracy  of  the 
lists,  so  we  should  regard  them  as  subject  to  correction." 

Neither  was  I  able  to  learn  whether  marriage  must  be  outside  the 
clan  still.  If  the  clans  really  have  become  reduced  to  one,  there  could, 
of  course,  be  no  marrying  outside  the  clan.  The  parents  of  a  young 
man  appear  to  have  a  good  deal  to  say  as  to  whom  he  shall  marry, 
and,  although  some  do  marry  against  their  father's  and  mother's 
wishes,  it  is  not  a  common  thing.  One  young  man  whom  I  knew  was 
about  to  marry  a  girl  of  his  own  choosing,  when  he  was  induced  by  his 
parents  to  marry  another.  It  was  easy  to  see  in  talking  with  him  that 
it  was  simply  a  matter  of  parental  preference.  He  preferred  one  and 
his  parents  the  other,  and  he  yielded.  While  he  does  not  today 
appear  actually  to  regret  his  action,  he  does  think  often  of  his  own 
choice  in  the  matter. 

An  interesting  survival,  apparently  of  the  time  when  a  man  went  to 
live  at  the  home  of  the  woman  whom  he  married,  is  to  be  found  in  one 
of  the  Taos  marriage  customs.  After  marriage  the  man  goes  to  live 
with  his  wife  at  her  home  with  her  parents.  The  length  of  this  stay 
depends  upon  circumstances.  Then  the  young  man  and  his  wife  build 
a  new  house  or  go  to  live  in  one  which  he  already  has. 

The  old  method  of  reckoning  time  is  interesting.  It  is  not  a 
method  which  would  have  been  equally  accurate  and  convenient  at  all 
of  the  New  Mexican  Pueblos  because  of  their  location.  But  as  one 
looks  west  from  the  pueblo  at  Taos,  the  outline  of  the  mountains  is 
much  broken  ;  the  varied  forms  of  the  hills  have  suggested  names  such 
as  "pottery  hill,"  "wolf's  ear  hill,"  "  eyebrow  hill,"  etc.  Of  course, 
between  the  winter  and  the  summer  solstices  the  sun  appears  to  have 

'^Papers  Arch.  Inst,  of  Amer.,  Ill,  p.  273. 

^  I  hope  some  day  to  make  a  complete  census  of  the  Pueblo  of  Taos,  as  has  been 
done  recently  by  Professor  Starr  for  the  Pueblo  of  Cochiti,  including  the  Indian  and 
the  Spanish  name,  and  the  clan  of  every  individual.  "  A  Study  of  a  Census  of  the 
Pueblo  of  Cochiti,  New  Mexico,"  Proc.  Dav.  Acad.  Nat.  Sci.,  Vol.  VII,  pp.  33-44. 


U- 


36  STUDY  OF  THE  PUEBLO  OF  TAOS 

moved  every  day  a  little  farther  north  as  it  sets  behind  the  hills. 
Between  the  summer  and  winter  solstices  the  sun  seems  to  be  retreat- 
ing toward  the  south.  The  Indians  had  noticed  the  exact  place  in  the 
horizon  where  the  sun  set  every  day  in  the  year,  and  they  knew  at  just 
what  time  the  sun  would  reach  a  certain  point.  They  thus  had  the 
year  exact — ^from  the  time  when  the  sun  reached  its  most  southerly 
point  on  the  horizon  to  the  time  when  it  returned  to  it  again.  They 
watched  the  sun  set  from  a  certain  tree  in  the  pueblo,  because  they  had 
noticed  that  the  place  of  setting  was  different  according  to  the  place 
from  which  it  was  observed. 

They  recognized  four  seasons  :  summer,  called  in  the  native  idiom 
"good  time;"  autumn,  "ripe  time;"  winter,  "still  time;"  spring, 
"beginning  time."  This  last  refers,  not  to  the  growing  grain  and 
the  budding  trees  and  bushes,  but  to  the  work  of  the  people  them- 
selves. The  summer  months  are  May,  June,  and  July ;  the  autumn, 
August,  September,  and  October  ;  the  winter,  November,  December, 
January,  and  February  ;  the  spring,  March  and  April.  When  one 
compares  the  names  given  to  the  seasons  with  the  months  which  cor- 
respond to  them,  it  is,  I  think,  easy  to  see  the  reason  for  the  differ- 
ences between  the  Indian  seasons  and  our  own.  One  should  remember 
also  that  Taos  is  high  up  in  the  mountains  and  hence  probably  has  a 
long  winter. 

Undoubtedly  in  the  old  days  the  people  did  much  more  communal 
work  than  now.  Individualism  was  not  developed  to  any  marked 
degree  ;  the  communal  idea  was  the  most  prominent  one.  The  houses 
and  lands  were  common  property,  and,  although  a  man  had  a  few 
things  which  he  himself  owned,  almost  everything  belonged  to  the 
tribe  or  to  the  clan.  Although  communal  ownership  and  communal 
activity  has  now  almost  wholly  passed  away,  one  may  still  see  lingering 
traces  of  it,  as  in  the  common  meadow  and  in  communal  work.  I  have 
mentioned  the  work  done  for  the  priest.  The  priest  baptizes  and  mar- 
ries the  people  and  helps  them  die,  and  in  return  they  cultivate  a  field 
which  is  set  apart  for  him.  Wheat  or  corn,  as  he  may  wish,  is  planted, 
irrigated,  and  harvested  for  him.  This  work  is  done  by  all  the  men, 
called  out  by  the  governor  as  occasion  requires.  Wood  is  also  fur- 
nished the  priest.  Everv  man  brings  a  little  to  the  governor's  house, 
and  this  is  then  loaded  on  burros  and  taken  to  the  priest's  house  at  the 
American  town  of  Taos. 

Nothing  remains   of  the  old  communal  hunts,  save  an   occasional 


STUDY  OF  THE  PUEBLO  OF  TAOS  37 

rabbit  hunt.  These  occur  on  the  days  before  saints'  days,  when,  of 
course,  there  will  be  a  dance.  A  considerable  number  of  the  men  and 
older  youths  ride  away  to  the  mesa  six  or  eight  miles,  armed  with  bows 
and  arrows,  and  sometimes  with  clubs.  They  drive  the  rabbits  until  they 
have  rounded  them  up  in  a  small  area,  and  then  kill  them  with  arrows 
or  with  clubs.  The  rabbits  are,  I  believe,  cooked  and  given  to  the 
dancers  the  next  day  in  the  kivas. 

The  irrigation  ditches  have  to  be  repaired  occasionally  and,  as  they 
are  of  use  to  all  and  belong  to  no  one  in  particular,  work  on  them  is 
done  by  all  in  common. 

One  of  the  best  illustrations  of  Indian  conservatism  I  have  seen 
was  in  connection  with  the  old  wall  at  Taos.  The  wall  is  now  of  no  use, 
and  has  weathered  down  so  that  it  is  very  low  ;  yet,  if  a  section  of  it 
happens  to  fall  or  to  be  knocked  over,  after  a  time  it  will  be  repaired. 
One  day  some  of  the  men  make  the  adobes  ;  a  few  days  later  others 
come  out  and,  assisted  by  the  women  who  carry  the  mud  for  mortar, 
rebuild  the  wall  to  its  present  average  height.  The  only  explanation 
given  me  was  that  it  is  an  old  custom,  and  doubtless  this  is  the  main,  if 
not  the  only,  reason  for  doing  the  work.  There  used  to  be  a  wall 
about  the  pueblo,  therefore  there  must  still  be  one. 

One  form  of  punishment  at  Taos  is  to  compel  the  offender  to  do  a 
certain  amount  of  communal  work.  This  is  often  the  punishment  for 
a  man  who  does  not  appear  in  the  dance,  when  he  has  been  ordered 
by  the  war  captain  and  his  officers  to  do  so.  For  offenders  against 
tribal  law  there  is  a  house  used  as  a  jail.  This  was  in  bad  condition 
and  has  been  lately  repaired  by  the  people.  For  a  very  serious  offense, 
such  as  murder,  a  man  is  now  sent  to  the  territorial  penitentiary  at 
Santa  Fe,  but  for  lesser  offenses  the  pueblo  jail  is  used.  One  man  I 
was  told  of  who  was  kept  in  jail  a  week  for  refusing  to  live  with  his 
wife  after  he  had  been  ordered  to  do  so.  She  had  been  unfaithful  to 
him,  but  after  his  week's  confinement  he  consented  to  live  with  her 
again. 

The  linguistic  relations  of  Taos  I  have  already  indicated.  The  lan- 
guage itself  is  rather  soft  and  pretty,  due  in  part  to  the  many  vowel 
sounds,  particularly  at  the  ends  of  the  words.  It  is  spoken  so  slowly 
and  distinctly  that  one  soon  comes  to  understand  a  few  of  the  words. 
But  the  people  are  exceedingly  jealous  of  an  outsider  learning  their 
language,  and  in  order  to  gain  a  speaking  knowledge  of  it,  he  would  be 
obliged  to  live  with  the  people,  and  completely  gain  their  confidence. 


38  STUDY  OF  THE  PUEBLO  OF  TAOS 

My  friend  taught  ine  a  few  words,  but  told  me  I  was  not  to  repeat 
them  to  anyone,  or  even  to  let  anyone  know  I  had  learned  them. 
Even  these  few  words  were  taught  me  when  we  were  alone,  away  from 
the  pueblo,  in  the  mountains. 

The  first  afternoon  I  was  at  Taos  a  small  boy  of  about  eight  years 
taught  me  the  numerals  up  to  twenty.  He  patiently  repeated  for  me 
word  after  word,  until  I  had  them  thoroughly  learned.  During  the 
three  months  after  that  day  I  learned  but  one  other  word  from  him, 
and  then  only  in  confirmation  of  one  which  had  been  given  me  by 
another  friend.  He  had,  I  suppose,  been  told  by  his  parents  that  he 
must  not  teach  the  language  to  white  people.  At  Taos,  as  at  many 
other  Indian  pueblos,  as  among  most  Indians  in  fact,  there  is  "  a  sort 
of  sacred  language."  "  Some  linguists  think  that  these  dialects  are 
archaic  forms  of  the  language,  the  memory  of  which  was  retained  in 
ceremonial  observances  ;  others  maintain  that  they  were  simply  affecta- 
tions of  expression  and  form  a  sort  of  slang,  based  on  the  everyday 
language,  and  current  among  the  initiated."'  Brinton  is  inclined  to 
the  latter  opinion.  Whatever  be  the  source  of  this  "  sacred  language," 
it  is  a  very  common  thing.  The  Taos  people,  for  example,  have  four 
or  five  different  words  for  many  things,  but  not  more  than  one  or  two 
of  these  words  are  known  to  all  the  people.  The  others  are  known 
only  to  those  who  belong  to  some  particular  society,  or  Avho  have  been 
initiated  into  some  special  mysteries. 

Every  individual  at  Taos  has  two  names  ;  first,  his  native  Indian 
name,  which  is  a  single  personal  name,  and  does  not  indicate  the 
family  at  all.  Like  other  Indian  names,  they  have  definite  meanings, 
and  are  often  picturesque.  A  small  boy  whom  I  knew  bore  the  name 
K'en-pi-oo-na  —  hare-track  —  because  his  father  had  noticed  the  track 
of  a  hare  on  the  snow,  and  it  was  very  straight  and  pretty.  One  girl 
was  named  Kw6"-fa-o  —  white,  fleecy  cloud  —  because  such  clouds  are 
pretty.  No  two  people  have  the  same  name,  nor  after  the  death  of 
one  is  the  name  given  again  so  long  as  it  is  remembered  that  the  name 
has  been  used.  Everyone  has,  also,  a  Spanish  name,  both  a  Christian 
name  and  a  family  name.  It  is  by  this  name  the  Indian  is  known 
outside  the  village  among  whites  and  other  Indians,  though  often  it  is 
not  known  to  everyone  in  the  village,  since  in  the  pueblo  the  native 
name  alone  is  used. 

Probably  for  hundreds    of  years  men   have  occasionally  gone  from 

'  D.  G.  Brinton,  American  Hero  Myths,  p.  26. 


STUDY  OF  THE  PUEBLO  OF  TAOS  39 

their  own  native  villages  to  live  at  others,  where  often  their  own,  but 
sometimes  another,  language  was  spoken.  The  cause  of  this  was,  in 
many  cases,  some  trouble  at  their  own  homes.  J'rom  Isleta  four  men 
in  recent  times  have  come  to  live  at  Taos,  have  been  received  and 
allowed  to  adopt  the  customs  of  the  people.  They  have  married,  and 
have  had  in  the  four  families  three  children,  who  are  as  much  children' 
of  the  village  as  any  others.  A  San  Juan  man,  also,  came  and  wished 
especiallv  to  watch  the  stock  in  the  meadow  ;  he,  too,  was  welcomed, 
married,  and  had  two  children.  A  very  old  Picuris  man  is  living  there, 
and  has  been  there  since  he  was  a  boy.  There  were  two  brothers  at 
Picuris,  both  of  whom  were  married,  and  one  of  whom  had  three 
children.  They  had  trouble  with  some  other  men  in  the  village,  so 
one  of  them  came  up  to  Taos  to  ask  the  governor  if  they  might  come 
there  to  live.  The  governor  consulted  his  council,  and  consent  was 
given,  so  the  brothers  and  their  families  came.  This  old  Picuris 
man  was  one  of  the  three  children,  and  later  married  a  Taos  woman. 
These  cases  were  told  me  by  a  friend  at  Taos,  and  simplv  illustrate 
the  occasional  movements  of  these  people  from  their  own  villages  to 
others,  where  the  customs  are  more  or  less  similar. 

The  social  life  of  the  Indian  is  so  bound  up  with  his  esoteric  and 
religious  life  that  one  cannot  be  fully  considered  without  the  other. 
But  to  speak  of  the  religious  life  of  the  Indians,  one  must  have  lived 
with  them  so  long  as  to  fully  gain  their  confidence.  For  this  a  few 
months  are  not  sufficient.  Mr.  Gushing  and  Mr.  Bandelier  have  shown 
in  considerable  detail  to  what  extent  the  Indians  are  Catholics.  The 
latter  says  :  "  The  Pueblo  Indians  accepted  the  new  faith  voluntarily, 
and  to  a  certain  extent  honestly.  They  adopted  it,  however,  from 
their  own  peculiar  standpoint,  that  is,  they  expected  material  benefits 
from  a  creed  that  pretended  to  give  them  spiritual  advantages.  In 
their  conception,  religion  is  but  a  rule  of  conduct  controlling  man 
while  alive,  and  on  strict  compliance  with  which  his  success  in  this 
world  depends.  In  short,  the  Pueblos  looked  upon  Christianity  as 
upon  another  kind  of  magic,  superior  to  the  one  which  they  practiced 
themselves  ;  and  they  expected  from  the  new  creed  greater  protection 
from  their  enemies,  more  abundant  crops,  less  wind,  and  more  rain, 
than  their  own  magic  performances  procured."  '  And  again  :  "  It  is  vain 
to  deny  that  the  southwestern  village  Indian  is  not  (?)  an  idolater  at 
heart,  but  it  is  equally  preposterous  to  assume  that  he  is  not  a  sincere 

^Papers  Arch.  Inst,  of  Aiiier.,  Ill,  p.  21 8. 


40  STUDY  OF  THE  PUEBLO  OF  TAOS 

Catholic.  Only  he  assigns  to  each  belief  a  certain  field  of  action,  and 
has  minutely  circumscribed  each  one."  '  I  am  not  so  much  inclined  to 
doubt  that  the  village  Indian  is  sincere  as  that  he  is  a  Catholic.  If 
one  may  judge  at  all  from  the  attendance  at  mass,  he  will  certainly 
think  that  the  hold  of  Catholicism  at  certain  of  the  villages  is  weak. 
I  have  many  times  at  Taos  watched  the  few  who  answer  the  call  of  the 
little  church  bell  on  Sunday  mornings.  My  friend  said  to  me  that 
they  had  another  religion  besides  the  Catholic,  and  that  they  did  not 
care  for  the  priest,  and  would  not  care  if  he  should  go  away  and  not 
come  back.  This  is  nothing  new,  but  it  is  important  because  the 
admission  was  made,  for  they  always  claim  to  be  Catholics.  Though 
the  priest  ba})tizes  and  marries  the  people,  the  native  rites  are  added 
to  the  Catholic,  otherwise  the  ceremony  would  not  be  complete. 

There  are  some  indications  which  lead  one  to  think  that  the  Pueblo 
Indian  wants  only  the  opportunity  to  take  off  his  new  religion  like  an 
outer  garment,  when  beneath  will  appear  the  old,  as  it  once  was,  worn 
at  one  or  two  points,  to  be  sure,  by  these  three  hundred  and  fifty  years 
of  contact  with  the  new  creed,  but  still  substantially  the  same.  One 
may  see  at  Taos  an  image  of  the  Virgin  Mary  carried  about  the  fields 
in  the  summer  time  to  secure  good  crops.  It  is  shaded  by  a  rude 
awning,  and  accompanied  by  a  few  Mexican  and  Indian  women,  and 
some  young  men  with  rifles,  which  they  occasionally  fire  off  into  the 
air.  It  is  plain  enough,  I  think,  that  practices  like  this  indicate  no 
adoption  by  the  people  of  anything  fundamental  in  the  faith. 

A  little  experience  of  my  own  rather  curiously  illustrates  the 
Indian's  attitude  toward  religious  matters.  Hanging  in  one  of  the 
houses  at  Taos  was  a  small  plate  of  hammered  copper,  on  which  was 
cut  a  design  of  "  our  lady  of  Zapopan."  I  wished  to  have  it,  as  it 
seemed  to  have  belonged  to  a  printing  press.  At  first  it  was  promised 
to  me,  but  when  I  finally  asked  to  have  it,  it  appeared  that  the  woman 
to  whom  it  really  belonged  had  hidden  it.  She  was  afraid  that  if  she 
parted  with  it,  some  harm  might  come  to  her  two  little  children.  Both 
she  and  her  husband,  who  promised  it  to  me,  feared  this,  because  they 
had  known  a  man  who  met  with  an  accident  because  he  had  sold  a 
small  image  of  a  saint.  After  selling  it,  he  had  gone  into  town, 
bought  some  whisky,  and  then  rode  his  horse  home  at  a  breakneck 
pace.  The  horse  stumbled  at  a  small  bridge  and  broke  his  leg.  This 
was,  of  course,  because  he  had  sold  the  little  figure.     Naturally,  then, 

'^Papers  Arch.  Inst,  of  Anier.,  Ill,  p.  222. 


STUDY  OF  THE  PUEBLO  OF  TAOS  4 1 

they  might  expect  some  harm  to  befall  their  own  family,  particularly 
the  helpless  little  ones,  if  they  parted  with  the  copper  plate,  and  this, 
not  so  much  because  it  had  a  design  of  the  Virgin  on  it,  which  was 
sacred,  as  because  of  some  power  in  it  which  would  be  offended. 

On  the  whole,  it  seems  to  me  that  Mr.  Cushing's  view  is  the  cor- 
rect one,  as  he  has  outlined  it  in  his  study  of  "Zuiii  Creation  Myths." 
In  one  place  he  says:  "The  Zuiii  faith,  as  revealed  in  this  sketch  of 
more  than  three  hundred  and  fifty  years  of  Spanish  intercourse,  is  as 
a  drop  of  oil  in  water,  surrounded  and  touched  at  every  point,  yet  in 
no  place  penetrated  or  changed  inwardly  by  the  fiood  of  alien  belief 

that  descended  upon  it He  is  slow  to  adopt  from  alien  peoples 

any  but  material  suggestions,  these  even,  strictly  according  as  they 
suit  his  ways  of  life ;  and  whatever  he  does  adopt,  or  rather  absorb  and 
assimilate,  from  the  culture  and  lore  of  another  people,  neither 
distorts  nor  obscures  his  native  culture,  neither  discolors  nor  displaces 
his  original  lore."  '  Mrs.  Stevenson,  in  writing  of  the  Sia,  says  :  "  While 
the  religion  of  the  Rio  Grande  Indians  bears  evidence  of  contact  with 
Catholicism,  they  are  in  fact  as  non-Catholic  as  before  the  Spanish 
conquest."^ 

It  is  not  an  easy  thing  to  realize  the  face  of  tradition  and  custom. 
We  rarely  think  how  many  things  we  do  because  it  is  customary, 
though  the  purpose  which  moved  the  makers  of  the  custom  is  lacking 
with  us.  But  the  most  conservative  civilized  people  in  the  world  can 
little  appreciate  the  situation  of  men  whose  whole  lives  are  dominated 
by  one  long  series  of  traditions  and  customs,  as  are  those  of  the 
Indians.  They  do  manv  things  simply  because  it  is  the  custom,  and 
can  give  no  better  reason  for  doing  them.  These  conservative  forces 
are  growing  slowly  less  in  Indian  life,  as  the  people  learn  white 
men's  ways  and  come  under  American  influence.  But  as  the  Indian 
is  only  in  the  childhood  of  culture  growth,  he  takes  the  forward  steps 
but  slowly,  as  all  who  have  traveled  the  same  road  before  him  have 
done. 

In  the  study  of  the  traditional  lore  of  the  Pueblo  people  very  little 
satisfactory  work  has  been  done.  The  mention  of  Mr.  Cushing's 
name  calls  to  mind  the  best  illustration  of  such  work.  What  he  has 
done  among  the  Zuni  should  be  done  in  every  other  pueblo,  or,  at 
least,  in  every  one  of  the  four  or  five  related  groups  of  people.     His 

'  Thirteenth  Annual  Report,  Bureau  of  Ethnology,  p.  339. 
^Eleventh  Annual  Report,  Bureau  of  Ethnology,  p.  14. 


42  STUDY  OF  rilE  PUEBLO  OF  TAOS 

work,  however,  represents  the  labor  of  many  years  and  of  long  resi- 
dence at  Zuhi. 

In  the  traditions  of  the  Pueblo  i)eo{)le  it  is  interesting  to  notice 
the  resemblances  which  occur  from  one  tribe  to  another,  resemblances 
which  are,  as  we  should  expect,  closer  between  the  Pueblos  themselves 
than  between  them  and  outside  peoples.  The  difhculty  of  learning 
anything  from  the  Indians,  particularly  of  a  mythical  or  religious 
nature,  is  very  great.  It  cannot  be  appreciated  by  one  who  has  not 
made  the  attempt.  So  experienced  an  ethnologist  as  Mr.  Bandelier 
says:  "Notwithstanding  a  residence  of  over  one  year  among  the 
Queres,  I  never  succeeded  in  penetrating  their  secrets  more  than  parti- 
ally." '  If  one  once  takes  a  false  step,  adopts  a  wrong  method  in 
dealing  with  them,  his  influence  is  gone.  Bandelier  speaks  of  Santo 
Domingo  having  closed  its  doors  to  him. 

At  Taos  I  was  hampered  in  my  inquiries  by  a  circumstance  which 
illustrates  very  well  certain  characteristics  of  the  Indian.  Some  years 
ago,  about  fifteen  I  believe,  representatives  of  the  government  were  at 
Sia  making  investigations.  Of  course  they  had  to  ask  many  questions. 
Some  time  after  they  went  away  there  was  much  sickness  in  the  j)ueblo, 
and  many  people  died.  It  occurred  to  the  Sia  people  that  the 
presence  of  those  white  men,  asking  a  lot  of  questions,  was  the  cause 
of  all  their  trouble,  so  they  sent  men  to  the  other  pueblos  to  warn  them 
against  white  men  who  came  to  find  out  about  their  customs  and 
beliefs.  These  messengers  were  at  Taos,  and  the  people  remem- 
ber their  warning  well.  If  a  Taos  Indian  is  caught  now  teaching 
the  language  or  telling  any  of  the  traditions  to  a  white  man,  he  is 
liable  to  a  whipping  and  a  fine.  This  accounts  for  the  fact  that  I 
could  rarely  learn  anything  from  my  friend  when  we  were  at  the 
pueblo,  although  when  away  in  the  mountains  he  became  much  more 
open  and  communicative. 

The  few  myths  which  I  was  able  to  learn  are  brief,  but  they  are 
outlines,  and  have  some  features  which  indicate  connection  with  other 
pueblo  myths. 

The  people  of  Taos  came  originally  from  the  north,  where  they 
lived  in  what  is  now  southern  Colorado.  After  leaving  this  place 
they  lived  for  some  time  in  northern  New  Mexico,  and  again  some 
miles  east  of  their  present  home.  But  before  living  on  the  earth  at 
all,  they  had  lived  in  a  lake.     When  they  came  up  from  the  lake,  they 

'  Papers  Arch.  Inst,  of  Ainer.,  Ill,  p.  293. 


STUDY  OF  THE  PUEBLO  OF  TAOS  43 

were  wild,  did  not  wear  even  the  breech-clout,  and  began  at  once  to 
hunt  the  deer.  While  in  their  northern  home  they  had  many  neighbors, 
among  them  the  Picuris,  who  lived  just  south  of  them.  One  day  a 
Picuris  man  was  planting  some  white  corn.  He  had  some  grains  in 
his  hand  and  was  showing  them  to  a  Taos  man,  when  the  latter  hit  his 
hand  from  below  and  scattered  the  corn.  From  that  time  the  two 
peoples  were  enemies,  and  the  Picuris  moved  away  to  the  south.  We 
note  here  agreement  with  other  Pueblo  myths  in  two  points  :  first,  that 
the  people  came  from  the  north,  and,  second,  that  they  had  not  always 
lived  on  the  earth,  and  had  not  been  created  on  it,  but  came  up  from 
below.  The  Zufii  myths,  as  given  by  Mr.  Gushing,  are  very  elaborate 
in  their  account  of  the  way  in  which  the  people  escaped  from  the 
lower  world,  the  stages  they  reached,  the  guides  they  had,  etc' 
The  Sia  have  a  similar  myth.'  Among  the  Navajos  there  ^ems  also 
to  be  the  same  idea,^  though  it  very  likely  was  borrowed  from  the 
Pueblo  people. 

Before  the  people  came  from  the  north,  the  earth  was  soft ;  even  the 
rocks  were  not  hard,  so  that  animals  left  tracks  in  them,  which  can  be 
seen  in  the  hard  rocks  today.     All  the  ground  was  covered  with  water. 

This  is  simply  the  widespread  tradition  of  a  flood,  which  has  been 
explained  as  either  local  remembrance  of  actual  floods,  or  as  a  con- 
clusion arrived  at  from  finding  on  high  land  shells  of  animals  which 
live  in  water,  or  from  the  evidence  furnished  by  these  tracts  in  the 
rocks,  which,  to  a  primitive  mind,  must  certainly  be  conclusive.  A 
tradition  of  a  flood  may  also  have  arisen  from  the  teachings  of  mis- 
sionaries. These  sources  are  obvious  enough.  John  Fiske  says : 
"The  numerous  myths  of  an  all-destroying  deluge  have  doubtless 
arisen  partly  from  reminiscences  of  actually  occurring  local  inunda- 
tions, and  partly  from  the  fact  that  the  Scriptural  account  of  a  deluge 
has  been  carried  all  over  the  world  by  Catholic  and  Protestant  mis- 
sionaries."'' 

W^hen  the  foremost  of  the  men  of  the  Zuiii  first  came  forth,  they 
found  the  earth  "wet  and  unstable."^  The  men  had  webbed  feet 
"  like  those  of  walkers  in  wet  and  soft  places."*     Later,  after  Zuiii-land 

'  Thirteenth  Annual  Report,  Bureau  ot  Ethnology,  pp.  379-84. 

^Eleventh  Annual  Report,  Bureau  of  Ethnology,  pp.  26-37. 

3  Eighth  Annual  Report,  Bureau  of  Ethnology,  p.  275. 

"John  Fiske,  Myths  and  Myth-Makers,  p.  152. 

5  Thirteenth  Annual  Report,  Bureau  of  Ethnology,  p.  381.  *>  Ibid.,  p.  383. 


44  STUDY  OF  THE  PUEBLO  OF  TAOS 

had  been  settled,  a  flood  came  from  the  swelling  of  the  river  and 
buried  houses  and  many  men,  and  was  stayed  only  when  a  youth  priest 
and  maiden  priestess  had  been  sacrificed  to  the  waters. '  The  Sia 
also  refer  to  a  great  flood  which  "  did  not  fall  as  rain,  but  came  in  as 
rivers  between  the  mesas,  and  continued  flowing  from  all  sides  until 
the  people  and  all  animals  fled  to  the  mesa."^  Here,  too,  to  stay  the 
waters  a  youth  and  maiden  were  cast  "  from  the  mesa  top  ;  and  imme- 
diately the  waters  began  to  recede."^  To  another  feature  of  this  tra- 
dition of  a  deluge  at  Taos  reference  will  be  made  in  connection  with 
the  Taos  culture-hero. 

The  hero-was  named  Pi-an-ket-ta-chbl-la  (Point  hill  green),  a  name 
which  was  given  him  because  he  could  at  any  time,  even  in  winter, 
make  a  hill  green.  This  the  people  consider  a  very  good  name. 
Pi-an-ket-ta-chol-la  was  born  at  the  foot  of  a  cedar  tree  about  one 
hundred  and  fifty  miles  north  of  Taos  and  west  of  the  San  Luis  valley. 
His  mother,  who  was  a  Pueblo  woman,  had  never  known  a  man,  but  she 
put  some  very  fine  pretty  pebbles  in  her  belt,  and  soon  after  this  child 
was  born.  When  the  people  could  not  find  out  who  the  father  of  the 
child  was,  they  attempted  to  put  him  to  death.  But  they  did  not  succeed, 
and  as  soon  as  he  grew  older  he  began  to  look  very  beautiful,  "  like  Jesus 
Christ,"  one  of  the  men  said  to  me.  Now  there  was  a  time  when  the 
Pueblo  people  did  not  know  how  to  dance,  to  make  their  clothes,  to 
plant  corn,  beans,  and  calabashes.  After  Pi-an-ket-ta-chol-la  came,  he 
taught  them  all  these  things.  He  picked  out  some  different-colored 
stones,  and  from  them  he  made  corn,  beans,  and  calabashes  grow. 

He  also  had  the  power  to  fly.  One  time  he  went  up  to  find  out 
about  the  stars.  He  took  off  his  moccasins  and  all  his  clothes  except 
the  breech-clout.  Many  people  came  out  to  see  him.  He  had  an 
eagle's  tail  fastened  to  his  breech -clout  behind,  and  on  his  arms  above 
the  elbow  wild  turkey  wings.  When  there  was  too  much  wind,  he 
could  not  go  up ;  but  on  a  quiet  day  he  would  go  to  the  top  of  a  house 
and  fly  away.  The  people  would  watch  him  grow  smaller  and  smaller, 
till  finally  he  became  small  as  a  fly,  and  then  disappeared  altogether. 
He  went  up  very  high  in  the  air,  as  high  as  from  Taos  to  Santa  Fe, 
and  got  within  a  few  feet  of  the  stars.  They  are  birds  and  have  very 
green  legs  and  very  bright  breasts,  like  a  humming  bird  ;  they  have  a 
bill  something  like  an  eagle's,  and  very  dark  eyes.     The  twinkling  of 

'  I'hirteenth  Annual  Report,  Bureau  of  Ethnology,  p.  429. 

^Eleventh  Annual  Report,  Bureau  of  Ethnology,  p.  35.  3  Jbid.,  p.  57. 


STUDY  OF  THE  PUEBLO  OF  TAOS  45 

the  stars  is  simply  the  birds  flying  slowly.  The  shooting  stars  are 
birds  moving  quickly  from  one  place  to  another.  When  you  cannot 
see  the  stars,  the  birds  have  turned  around,  so  that  their  bright  breasts 
can  no  longer  be  seen,  and  so  they  give  no  light.  Pi-an-ket-ta-chol-la 
could  not  find  out  how  the  birds  live,  nor  could  he  get  near  enough  to 
the  sun  and  moon  to  find  out  about  them. 

But  he  could  not  only  fly,  he  could  also  go  down  into  the  earth. 
In  summer  time  he  could  bring  up  ice  and  snow,  and  in  winter  he 
could  bring  up  green  leaves.  He  could  make  rain  come  when  he 
wished. 

At  one  time  there  were  many  people  living  on  the  earth,  but  much 
hot  water  came  and  drowned  them  all.  The  whole  earth,  even  the 
rocks,  became  soft.  This  wise  man  made  a  big  pile  of  cottonwood 
bark  and  got  inside  the  pile  and  so  did  not  die.  While  the  waters 
thus  covered  the  earth,  Pi-an-ket-ta-chol-la  looked  down  into  the  earth 
and  saw  it  was  all  green  there,  so  he  made  the  water  go  down  there. 
He  then  came  out  from  the  pile  of  bark  and  took  some  foam  from 
the  top  of  the  water  and  made  people.  He  took  different-colored 
stones  and  made  maize  and  other  seed.  These  the  people  planted, 
and  the  next  year  the  seed  was  distributed,  and  so  they  had  crops 
again. 

Before  the  Pueblo  people  saw  white  men,  negroes,  and  all  other 
people,  this  wise  man  had  seen  them  and  told  the  pueblo  people  about 
them.  Of  the  Americans  he  had  said  that  some  time  a  people  would 
come  who  made  a  noise  with  their  shoes,  like  men  walking  on  snow. 
The  Indian  who  told  me  this  added,  with  confidence  :  "This  is  true, 
because  we  see."  He  told  them  they  would  get  fewer  and  fewer,  and 
by  and  by  would  all  be  white  men,  and  then  there  would  be  no  more 
Pueblo  people. 

One  cannot  wonder  that  the  influence  and  presence  of  white  people 
is  much  disliked,  especially  when  he  considers  that  the  birth  of  half- 
breeds  is  but  a  step  toward  the  extinction  of  the  Pueblo  people, 
according  to  their  own  traditions. 

Pi-an-ket-ta-chol-la  is  still  living  in  a  lake  somewhere  to  the  north. 
One  time  a  noise,  like  the  beating  of  a  drum,  such  as  is  now  used  in  their 
dances,  was  heard  in  the  lake.  His  tracks  have  been  seen  about  there 
too.     "  He  is  very  old,  but  does  not  die." 

Po-shai-yan-ne,  the  culture-hero  of  the  Sia,  was  born  of  a  virgin  at 
the  Pueblo  of  Pecos.     She  became  pregnant  from   eating  two   pifion 


46  STUDY  OF  THE  PUEBLO  OF  TAOS 

nuts.  At  his  birth  she  was  much  chagrined  and  cast  him  off,  while  he 
was  still  very  young.  He  lived  as  best  he  could  until  he  reached  man- 
hood, when  his  magic  power  appeared.  After  a  time  he  went  to  visit 
all  the  pueblos.  When  he  came  to  the  Sia,  they  knew  him,  because 
they  had  heard  of  him.  He  stayed  with  them  a  while  and  taught 
them  to  hunt,  and  then  went  on  into  Chihuahua,  Mexico.  Here 
he  was  killed  by  rivals  for  the  favor  of  a  chief's  daughter,  to  whom 
he  had  been  married,  but  the  next  day  he  appeared  alive  again, 
and,  though  a  second  time  put  to  death,  by  drowning,  he  rose  again,  and 

the  Sia  say  :  "  He  still  lives,  and  some  time  he  will  come  to  us 

He  ma}'  come  today,  tomorrow,  or  perhaps  not  in  our  lifetime.'" 

Just  as  we  find  the  Taos  culture-hero  Pi-an-ket-ta-chol-la  making 
people  from  the  foam  on  the  water,  so  the  Sun-father  of  the  Zufii 
impregnated  the  Foam -cap  so  that  she  gave  birth  to  the  Beloved  Twain, 
who  led  men  out  from  the  world  below  to  the  world  of  light  and  life.* 

The  culture- hero  of  the  Zufii  who  corresponds  most  nearly,  per- 
haps, to  these  of  Taos  and  of  Sia  was  Pai-ya-tu-ma,  "God  of  Dew 
and  the  Dawn."^  He  is  not  represented  as  having  given  grain  to  the 
Zuni  by  a  single  and  simple  act  of  creation,  as  did  Pi-an-ket-ta-chol-la 
at  Taos,  but  the  people  had  much  to  do  in  the  first  ceremony  which 
gave  them  the  staple  Indian  cereal.  But  after  they  had  gone  through 
the  long  rites,  "out  from  the  East-land  came  Pai-ya-tu-ma"  and 
"touched  the  plants  with  the  refreshing  breath  of  his  flute."''  Then,  as 
the  morning  mists  cleared  away,  he,  too,  disappeared,  and  was  seen  but 
once  again,  when  the  people  became  dissatisfied  with  the  way  in  which 
the  corn  custom  was  observed.  He  was  sought  out.  Pie  came  back 
and  instructed  the  people  in  the  old  custom,  and  then,  "in  the  gray 
mists  of  the  morning,  Pai-ya-tu-ma  was  hidden  —  and  is  seen  no  more 
of  men. "5  The  Zuiii  "  Po-shai-yan-k'ya,  the  wisest  of  wise  men  and 
the  foremost,"  both  in  his  name  and  in  his  qualities,  shows  similarity  to 
the  Sia  hero  Po-shai-yan-ne,  but  in  that  part  of  the  Zufii  myths  which 
Mr.  Gushing  has  thus  far  published  Pai-ya-tu-ma  more  closely  resem- 
bles the  Sia  god. 

Before  the  Taos  people  were  living  where  they  now  are,  other 
pueblo  people  lived  in  the  valley.  Traces  of  what  are  supposed  to  have 
been  their  houses  may  still  be  seen.     While  these  people  were  living 

'  Eleventh  Annual  Report,  Bureau  of  Ethnology,  pp.  59-67. 

^Thirteenth  Annual  Report,  Bureau  of  Ethnology,  p.  381. 

^Ibid.,  p.  377.  '■Ibid.,  p.  395.  •^Ibid.,  p.  447. 


SnUTir    HOUSE,    rUEHI.O   OF  TAOS.      LOOKING    EAST 


'fe^       f 


.VMMF 


NORTH  HOrSE,  I'UElil.O  OF  TAOS.   LOOKING  NORTH 


OF  THB 

[-^NIVEKSITT 
=^CALIFORH}^ 


STUDY  OF  THE  PUEBLO  OF  TAOS  47 

here,  there  came  a  big  man,  tall  as  a  pine  tree,  and  killed  many  of 
them.  Those  who  were  left  went  away.  This  giant  could  drink  out 
of  the  Rio  Grande  by  putting  one  foot  on  each  side  of  the  river, 
stooping  down  and  resting  his  hands  on  the  banks,  although  the  river 
in  the  valley  flows  between  high,  steep  walls.  The  track  of  his  foot, 
which  was  left  in  the  rock  before  it  hardened,  is  about  three  feet  long 
and  one  foot  wide.  This  is  up  in  the  hills,  not  far  from  the  pueblo,  and 
is  said  to  be  covered  up  now  by  rain  wa^h.  The  giant  had  a  boy  who 
used  to  go  around  with  him,  and  he,  too,  left  his  track  on  a  rock.  That 
of  the  man  I  have  not  seen,  though  I  have  no  doubt  there  exists  some- 
thing which  much  resembles  a  man's  track,  whatever  it  may  be.  The 
boy's  track  my  friend  promised  to  show  me,  so  we  went  up  to  the  hills 
one  day,  carrying  a  small  rope,  that  we  might  bring  down  a  load  of 
wood,  and  so  conceal  the  real  purpose  of  our  walk.  The  impression  in 
the  rock  appears  to  be  that  of  a  man's  left  foot.  It  is  about  a  foot 
long  and  four  or  five  inches  wide.  After  I  had  examined  it,  we  scat- 
tered sand  over  it,  so  that  it  would  not  appear  that  anyone  had  been 
looking  at  it.  The  giant  and  the  boy  were  at  last  killed  by  Pi-an-ket- 
"ta-chol-la. 

The  Sia,  too,  were  troubled  by  giants.  They  were  called  the  Skoyo 
and  were  born  of  the  Sia  women  while  the  men  were  away  from  them 
for  three  years.  They  ate  the  people,  catching  them  just  as  the  coyote 
catches  his  prey,  then  roasting  them  and  eating  them.  A  virgin  became 
by  the  Sun-father  the  mother  of  twin  boys,  Maasewe  and  U'yuuyewe. 
One  day  they  went  to  visit  their  father,  the  sun,  and  he  gave  them 
bows  and  arrows  and  three  sticks  apiece.  They  then  destroyed  all  the 
giants  who  were  eating  the  Sia  people,  and,  finally,  after  performing 
many  great  deeds,  went  back  to  the  Sun-father.  He  sent  them  into 
the  Sandia  mountains  to  live,  and  there  they  still  live,  for  their  foot- 
prints are  to  be  seen  on  the  mountains.' 

The  twin  boys  in  the  Sia  myth  do  a  part  of  the  work  which  was 
done  at  Taos  by  the  hero  Pi-an-ket-ta-chol-la.  For  the  boys  destroy 
the  giants  and  teach  the  people  some  things,  such  as  organization  of 
the  cult  societies.  But  other  things  which  were  taught  bv  Pi-an-ket- 
ta-chol-la  to  the  Taos  people,  Po-shai-yan-ne  taught  the  Sia. 

In  the  Navajo  cosmogony,  as  given  by  Mr.  Stevenson,  are  mentioned 
two  wonderful  boys  who  went  to  visit  their  father,  the  sun.  He  gave 
them  bows,  arrows,  knives,  good  leggings,  and  even  lightning.     With 

'Eleventh  Annual  Report,  Bureau  of  Ethnology,  pp.  42-57. 


48  STUDY  OF  THE  PUEBLO  OF  TAOS 

their  weapons  they  then  killed  their  enemies  and  went  to  live  in  the 
mountains.  Before  leaving  they  taught  the  Navajo  people  songs  and 
prayers.'  This  closely  resembles  the  Sia  myth,  and  probably  was  bor- 
rowed from  the  Pueblos. 

Brinton  mentions  that  among  the  Muyscason  the  Andean  plateau 
the  knowledge  of  their  various  arts  was  "  attributed  to  the  instructions 
of  a  wise  stranger  who  dwelt  among  them  many  cycles  before  the 
arrival  of  the  Spaniards.  .  .  .•.  his  footprints  on  the  solid  rock  were 
reverently  pointed  out  long  after  the  conquest."  °  Here  it  is  the  culture- 
hero  whose  tracks  are  seen  in  the  rocks,  and  not  those  of  the  giants 
who  ate  the  people.  This  is  not  strange,  as  these  tracks,  which  so 
closely  resemble  the  impression  of  a  very  large  man's  foot,  might  easily 
be  associated  either  with  the  culture-hero  or  with  the  evil  being  to  whom 
he  is  so  often  opposed. 

It  is  evident  that  too  little  of  the  mythology  of  the  Pueblos, 
excepting  Zuni  and  Sia,  has  been  collected  to  permit  an  attempt  at 
interpretation  yet.  I  think  there  can  be  no  doubt  that  there  is  at  Taos 
a  rich  store  of  mythical  lore ;  this  which  I  have  given  is  certainly  the 
merest  beginning. 

If  we  are  to  follow  Mr.  Brinton  in  his  interpretation,  we  have  in 
these  culture-hero  stories  simply  sun  myths.  The  wonderful  man  who 
teaches  the  people  how  to  plant,  to  hunt,  and  to  do  all  kinds  of  work, 
and  who  brings  dry  land  out  of  the  waters,  is  only  the  sun,  which  makes 
everything  grow,  which  dries  up  the  waters,  and  is  itself  necessary  to 
man's  existence.  "The  story  of  the  virgin  mother  points,  in  America 
as  it  did  in  the  old  world,  to  the  notion  of  the  dawn  bringing  forth 
the  sun." 3  The  hero  may  go  away  or  be  conquered,  but  he  is  not 
killed.  So  "the  sun  shall  rise  again  in  undiminished  glory,  and  he 
lives,  though  absent."'' 

'  Eighth  Annual  Report,  Bureau  of  Ethnology,  p.  280. 

^D.  G.  '&x\x\\.o\\,  American- Hero-Myths,  pp.  220-21. 

i  Ibid.,  p.  34.  *  Ibid.,  p.  30. 


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